Malpractice
by Salt-the-Catgirl
Summary: Dr. Toshio Ozaki prevents the deaths of four certain Shiki during the Human/Shiki Slaughter in Sotoba. Though, when his real reasons are revealed, death may have been more merciful.
1. Test Subjects

_**Malpractice**_

 _ **Synopsys & Author's Note:**_ Dr. Toshio Ozaki prevents the deaths of four certain Shiki during the Human/Shiki Slaughter in Sotoba. Though, when his real reasons are revealed, death may have been more merciful. Special thanks to OmniXenderman for help with this story, the idea actually came to me while talking with him, when I realized how I always seem to put him in a more positve light than I often do Dr. Akari in my Karneval fics. However, all the science/medical virus jargon was Omni's idea. I'm using this theory with his permission, and he expands on it in his own stories. Fair warning, this is a DARK alternate ending. It includes Torture, Drugs, Death, Memory Loss, and Rape. This was not an easy chapter to get through. I was doing good, until I got to the scene with Megumi... Then my fingres and toes started to go numb. I know Omni offered to write any of the stuff I may be too squeamish for, but I at least wanted to get this much out of the way on my own. This is why I didn't explain the surgical proceedure in necessary detail in 'My First Patient'. Oh, and as far as I know, the rare condition I give Masao isn't canon! And what Doc O tells Tohru about Aoi and Tamatsu is going off the spoilers the opening themes gave us in the Anime, this is the first I've ever used that piece of canon.

* * *

 _ **CHAPTER 1: Test Subjects**_

* * *

Dr. Toshio Ozaki watched in silence as the humans of his village began to act with mob like intentions. He grew up in Sotoba, and knew several, if not all of these people personally. He's known them since he was born. His family was among the highest standing families in the whole village. His clinic had been there and within his family ever since this village had been founded. The only family higher than his own, was the family in charge of the temple, the Muroi family. In times of crisis, the Muroi family and the Ozaki family were the ones the villagers turned to for guidance. But, the priests were no longer trusted. The 'Good Doctor' was their leader.

Toshio lit his cigarette and took a long drag off of it. He had intended to expose the threat to the village. He intended to wipe the 'enemy' off the face of the earth. He wasn't expecting the mobs to start killing innocent humans on baseless suspicions.

The Vampires, Okiagari, Shiki, or whatever the hell they called themselves had slowly weaved their fingers into the affairs of the village. High officials had been killed and either replaced by more Corpse Demons, or returned from the dead as a Shiki and resumed their jobs under the rule of their clan leader. The old priest had gone missing several days ago. Now, it had been confirmed he was among their ranks. Tomio Ookawa had watched, in complete disbelief, as the old man had burned away to nothing in the morning sunlight just this morning, after stumbling upon him by complete accident. The Jr. Monk, Seishin Muroi, was missing in action, but had not spoken to Dr. Ozaki for some time now.

Dr. Ozaki had never been close to his wife Kyouko, but he and Jr. Monk Muroi had been steadfast friends their whole lives. However, Kyouko's death had drove them apart, and Seishin was now in bed with the enemy. Of that, Toshio had no doubt.

The Shiki had even tried to get their hands on Toshio. Discovering he knew about their existence, Sunako Kirishiki had sent the vampiress Chizuru Kirishiki to the doctor. Chizuru had bit him and hypnotized him into destroying all his evidence, all the death certificates, all the footage and notes he'd taken of his wife as she came back to life and he conducted torturous experiments upon her to discover how these creatures worked, and ultimately, her final death as he ran the stake through her heart himself. It all went up in flames. Everything Toshio had been collecting in order to reach out to someone from outside the village for assistance was gone, and all the roads were closed, blocking the humans from leaving. Only the Shiki could leave, no help would be coming. Once the flames that were now sweeping the village finally died out, it would be up to whatever humans were left to pick up the pieces and rebuild, should they decide to stay at all, that is.

He stepped out of the back of the Humvee as they arrived in Yamari. His nurse Yasuyo Hashiguchi had gone missing for a few days, when she returned, she was unharmed, but told him the Shiki had took her and were holding her here in Yamari. He couldn't understand why they would let her leave untouched, knowing it would give away their hiding place. It made no sense to him. The other villagers ran in ahead of him, piercing stakes through the hearts of anything that moved, or anyone that got bitten. He was too distracted with trying to figure out why they'd allowed Yasuyo to leave, to think to assure the frightened stupid villagers that a simple bite wasn't enough to turn a person, only to hypnotize them until the offending Shiki was killed.

Toshio stopped, wide eyed as his eyes landed on a cell at the end of the hall. Suddenly, it made sense as to why Yasuyo had gotten away. His missing nurse, Ritsuko Kunihiro was sitting in the back of the cell, quietly holding hands with a familiar blonde teenager; Tohru Mutou, the clinic director's oldest son, and Ritsuko's perspective boyfriend. Not too long ago, Toshio had written Tohru's death certificate. Ritsuko had only just disappeared a few days ago. His jaw dropped and his cigarette just barely stayed in his mouth without falling to the floor.

"There's two over here!" someone shouted. The villager picked up two stakes and started to rush into the cell.

"HOLD IT!" Toshio barked, catching the villager by the shoulder.

"What? Doctor, what's wrong?" the villager asked.

Toshio shook his head, staring at the two Shiki sitting in the cell. "Not these two," he insisted. "They're not fighting back."

"Yeah, but..." the villager started to argue.

"I'm taking these two alive," Toshio insisted, "I've got plans for them. Bring in some rope."

The villagers seemed confused, but they did as the doctor ordered. The blond teenage male hissed like a cat at the humans when they entered the cell, but the green haired nurse squeezed his hand. She'd refused to drink Yasuyo's blood. She'd taken an oath as a nurse, not to take a life, and she was determined to up hold it. The problem with that was that she'd spent the last few days starving herself, while Tohru begged her to feed, warning that the others would severely punish her if she didn't. He finally gave in and released Yasuyo, even though he knew she'd give them away. Ritsuko had managed to do what he couldn't, she had fought off the hunger and let her friend live, even with the threat of her own death. She was too weak to run or fight, and he refused to leave her side. He huddled close to her and could feel the sting of tears threatening the corners of his eyes. The couple quietly resigned themselves to their deaths. They were taken by surprise, however, when the humans drug them away from one another and tied their hands and feet together.

Tohru didn't struggle at first, until he saw they had Ritsuko, too. "Ritsu-Chan...?" He squirmed, but they already had him tied. "What are you doing? Please, don't hurt her."

"Shut up, you filthy animal," one of the villagers snarled, bashing Tohru in the head with the blunt end of one of the wooden stakes. The doctor wants you both alive."

"Dr. Ozaki?" Ritsuko called, her dark eyes looking up to her former boss in fear. "What are you going to do with us?"

Toshio didn't answer, he simply took a drag off his cigarette, keeping his back turned to his former nurse. "Get them back to the clinic in Mizobe and leave them in the basement," he ordered, "And do it quickly, before the sun comes up! If you have to rough the boy up a bit to get him to cooperate, that's one thing, but make sure they both get there in one piece."

The villagers took rags and forced them into Tohru and Ritsuko's mouths, more as a precaution not to get bitten than to keep them quiet, and toted them away. After a moment's hesitation, Toshio decided it best to ride back to the clinic with them, to keep an eye over his new cargo.

The carted the two Shiki into the abandoned clinic in Mizobe, as it was closer than his own in Sotoba, and tossed them into the basement. This basement was better for containing them than his own, as it had no windows. Seeing how weak Ritsuko seemed to be, Toshio went back upstairs. The clinic was a mess. The upper level was but a shell of what the building once was. It hadn't been left untouched be the flames that were sweeping theough all three prefectures of the village, but the sprinkler systems had been quick to put the fire out, leaving the building still standing and, though charred, mostly operational.

He entered the emergency supply room, took two small beakers worth of blood, just enough CCs to warrent a blood test in each, and returned to the basement. He removed the cloth from Tohru's mouth and pushed one of the vials to the teenager's mouth. "DRINK," he ordered. Tohru was confused, but did as he was told.

"D-Doctor Ozaki...?" Torhu asked sounding completely baffled.

The doctor ignored him. Tohru may as well have been an annoying barking dog, for all Toshio cared. Instead, the doctor turned his attention to his former nurse, who'd been left on the other side of the basement. He knelt down in front of her, with a gentle smile on his face. "I've got to say I'm surprised to find you among them, Ritsu," he said, as he removed the rag from her mouth. "I was lead to believe people only come back if they have regrets. What sort of regrets could you possibly have had?" He brushed a strand of green hair out of her face.

Ritsuko looked away from him. "You know what I have to regret," she answered in a weak whisper.

"Your mother and sister?" Toshio asked, "The fact that you didn't leave Sotoba with your fiance' when you had the chance? Yuki's disappearance?"

"STOP," Ritsuko sobbed. "You didn't care about any of that when Kyouko died, why bring it up now?"

Toshio smiled. "You're right," he admitted, "After I staked the little adulteress, I became more obsessed with discovering how to fight and kill these monsters."

Ritsuko and Tohru both snapped their attention the doctor wide eyed in shock. "Y-You mean...?"

"That's right, your green haired friend with the spiky hair was invited in by someone. Starved for the attention I didn't care to give her, she's the most likely candidate. She lay in that room, dead for days before she rose up as one of you," Toshio admitted. He chuckled. "Saved me the trouble of a divorce and paying alimony."

"Doctor, that's horrible of you!" Ritsuko scolded.

Toshio didn't respond, he simply pushed the other vial of blood to Ritsuko's lips. "Here, drink this, you look like you can barely hold your head up." Ritsuko tried to refuse, but Toshio caught her by the chin and forced the vial to her mouth. Tilting her head back, he forced her to drink the thick red liquid.

"Y-You're not going to do the same to us, are you, Doctor?" Tohru asked.

"No, not yet," Toshio said, "Not if you both cooperate and do as you're told, anyway."

Both Shiki startled and went on high alert. They weren't sure what to make of the doctor's words. He was promising not to hurt them if they cooperated with him, but at the same time, those words, 'Not yet.' Did he intend to kill them later? If their hearts still moved, they'd be pounding out of their chests in fear of those words.

Toshio chuckled. "Relax," he said, "It's almost dawn, you're safe for now." He looked at Ritsuko with a fond smile. "How does that taste, Ritsu?" he asked.

The look on her face was akin to the look of someone who'd just drank sour milk. "Ugh, it's foul," she said, "Does it always taste like that?"

"No," Tohru broke in, he'd tasted it, too, "It's not very palatable, with..." he stopped and thought back to his last real victim, the one person he'd never wanted to hurt, the one person that, once he had, he'd hoped would rise up. But no, his best friend Natsuno was carted away in a hearse from the City Morgue, before the roads to the village were completely sealed off. The City Morgue cremates their dead bodies, Natsuno Yuuki/Koide would never be seen again. "...Certain exceptions," he continued after a moment's hesitation. But, it doesn't taste like that coming from a human."

Toshio raised an eyebrow and rose to a standing position, looking down at Ritsuko. "Must be the chemicals used to preserve the blood. You haven't fed off anyone?" he asked in surprise.

"NO! I'd be breaking my oath!" Ritsuko spat, "I'm a nurse, I can't take a life!"

"Good thing I have plenty of reserve emergency blood, then," Toshio chortled, placing his hands on his hips. He turned back to Tohru. "Tohru, shortly after your death, your friend Natsuno came to me and asked if it were possible for Megumi to come back from the dead. I joked with him that it was only possible if she were a Vampire. Suddenly, it all clicked into place, everything that had been happening up until that point finally made sense." He approached the blonde and towered over him. Tohru backed against the wall, keeping his head bowed. Even the mention of Natsuno's name hurt. "You're aware of what's going on out there right now, right?"

Tohru gave a quiet nod. "The humans are fighting back," he sobbed, "The Shiki and the humans are slaughtering one another." Tohru bit down on his gums and sucked down the blood that rose from it. For a Shiki, this was akin to alcoholism, a way to numb the pain. It was something he hadn't wanted to resort to, but at the moment, it was all he had left.

"And your death is what caused it all," Toshio said with a click of his tongue. Tohru let out a whimper and curled even further into a ball.

"Doctor!" Ritsuko exclaimed, disapprovingly.

"Somehow, Natsuno knew something about your death, and Megumi's. It was that conversation with him that alerted me to the existence of the Shiki," Toshio informed the blond, "And now Natsuno's no longer among the living either, is he?" Tohru bit himself again and started to cry. "Did they target him, Tohru?" Tohru gave a quiet nod. "Who'd they send after him, was it Shimizu?"

Tohru shook his head and sobbed louder. "No! They sent me," he whined, "I didn't want to do it, but they threatened to go after my brother and sister if I didn't."

"Oh, Tohru..." Ritsuko sighed, sorrowfully.

Toshio shook his head. "I hate to break the news to you then," he sighed. Tohru flinched and fell silent, shifting his black eyes in the direction of the doctor, curiously. "Aoi and Tamotsu are both dead. I don't know if they rose up or not, but your father and mother are all that's left of your family that's still living, breathing flesh."

"NO!" Tohru exclaimed, shaking his head in pure agony. "You're lying!?"

Toshio shook his head. "I didn't write the death certificates, the funeral home that your leader set up in town did. Your father called me to tell me he wasn't coming in the day it happened. They duped you, kid."

Tohru closed his eyes and screamed. The scream faded into quiet, broken sobs. " _ **Aoi, Tamotsu...**_ " he grieved, " _ **Even after I did what he told me to, they still took them?**_ "

"Both on the same day," Toshio said.

" _ **Natsuno's not coming back,**_ " Tohru sniffled, " _ **Tatsumi, you lying bastard!**_ "

"Oh, Tohru..." Ritsuko quietly called his name. She wanted to run to him, to throw her arms around him and comfort him, but her arms and legs were still bound.

Toshio left them that way. He didn't untie them, he didn't move them so they were close to one another. He simply left, without a word, and locked the door to the basement. Amidst his grief, Tohru struggled to try and stay awake as the sun began to rise. But when daylight came, sleep was not something either of the Shiki could fight for long.

Toshio returned to his own clinic for some supplies he knew he would need when he returned to Mizobe. His clinic wasn't in a much better state than the other. His mother's blood was still smeared across the walls from where Atsushi Ookawa had torn her to pieces in bitter rage over the death of Chizuru Kirishiki. Toshio scoffed as he looked at the blood stain. The words were still scribbled there, 'This bitch will never rise!'

He went to the room where he'd kept Kyouko during his time experimenting on her. Collecting his camera, surgical kit, and a notepad and pen, he stuffed it all into a briefcase, and returned to the abandoned clinic in Mizobe.

The flames eventually died down. Toshio went up to Kanemasa, the mansion where the Kirishiki had resided. Most of the humans had either fled the town in whatever manner they could, or turned their attention to rebuilding the town, now. The Shiki were still a threat in their mind, but aside from Toshio's two captives in the abandoned clinic, none had been seen for at least two nights now. Toshio was certain there was no way they were all dead. Sure, the large majority of them were staked or tied to trees and left out for the sun, some tied to the trees, then staked before the sun could get them. Such had been the fate of Nao, the wife of another one of Toshio's childhood friends. They were gone, but not all dead. Their leader and the Jr. Monk still had not been seen, and the mob had stormed the temple and slaughtered Mrs. Muroi and the temple workers in cold blood. The old church that Seishin used to enjoy visiting in the middle of the night had been engulfed in flames, and Tomio Ookawa's charred body was found lying on the floor.

"There's no doubt about it, the little girl was behind it all," Toshio scoffed to himself as he approached the mansion. "Brat bewitched him, and he's left with her," he said with a click of his tongue. The gates to the mansion were wide open. The bodies of the staked Shiki had all been thrown into a pile inside the mansion and left for the flames. Toshio walked up to the door and pressed his hand to it. He'd expected it to be heavy and hard to open, but due to the fire damage it fell right off it's hinges, flat on the ground, stirring up dust and ashes off the floor. A normal person would have coughed as the debris flew about them, but as the body count had increased after the Kirishiki family's arrival, Toshio had begun smoking more and more. He was now up to three packs a day.

"Heh, I guess that means come on in," he scoffed, stepping over the door. He walked to the center of the room and froze. There, just barely visible under the rubble where the bodies of two teenagers. One, a girl, just a few weeks shy of turning sixteen, with pink fluffy pigtails. The other, a seventeen year old male with long, scraggly black hair and pale skin. There was a large, heavy piece of debris on the girl's head. Toshio clicked his tongue as he swept the debris away. "Well, now, Megumi, it seems Natsuno was right... And who was the idiot that ran you through?" he scoffed, "Their aim was off. No where near the heart! I wonder, if I pull this out, would you reanimate?"

He looked to the boy. "And Masao... Your sister-in-law did the honors, I believe?" Toshio shook his head. "Shows how much your family paid attention to you, doesn't it?" There were still bruises on the boy from where his sister-in-law had beat him repeatedly with a golf club after allowing him in the house when he came to her in search of refuge from the mobs. The stake she ran through him was right where the heart SHOULD be. Toshio sighed. "If any of them had paid attention, they'd know you were born with Heterotaxy, more specifically Dextrocardia." He shook his head in disbelief. "NEITHER of you are actually dead, you're just in suspended animation!" He glanced back at the door. "And just far enough away from the doors and windows to be shielded from the sun."

He reached down and yanked the stake out of Megumi's chest. Then turned to do the same to Masao. Just as he pulled it, the last rays of sunlight cast over the the building. Masao's corpse moved, lunging at the doctor, fangs bared. Toshio quickly moved out of the way and struck the teenager on the back of the head, at just the right spot to knock him unconscious. Suddenly, Megumi began to move. Toshio whirled around, to face her, on his guard, should he need to defend himself from her as well.

Slowly, she sat up, shaking her head. "Wha...? Where...?" she moaned, placing a hand to her head. Her eyes widened as she felt something thick and wet pool onto her hand. Moving her hand away from her head, she looked at it, eyes widening even further, before screaming in abject terror. Her hand was coated in blood, her own. The chunk of debris that had landed on her had busted her skull and she'd been lying in a pool of her own blood for days now. Both of them were weak and starved, it's amazing how either of them could move at all. She looked up at Toshio, a look of innocent confusion mingled with fear sweeping her face. "What happened?" she sobbed.

Toshio hoisted the unconscious Masao up onto his shoulder. "The building collapsed," he answered, "I guess the fire weakened the upper floors."

"Fire?" Megumi looked around. She still seemed confused. Toshio raised an eyebrow. Something seemed odd about her. "What is this place? What am I doing here?"

"What is this place?" Toshio parroted, "This was Kanemasa. Look, Megumi, I'll explain things later, but can we leave, now? Masao's heavier than he looks, and I don't want him this close to my neck when he wakes up."

"Go where? Megumi? Is that my name?" she asked, tilting her head to the side and taping a finger to her chin, completely forgetting about her current brain hemorrhage.

" _Great, a talking corpse with amnesia_ ," Toshio scoffed to himself, shaking his head. "We're going to the hospital, so I can treat that bump on your head," he said aloud. "Can you walk?"

"I... I think so..." she said, squirming her way out of the rubble. She staggered and wobbled a little. That was to be expected. She was weak from not having fed, and from the two wounds that had not yet healed.

"It's amazing you can even sit up," Toshio commented.

"Huh? Why?" Megumi asked. This was when she noticed the older man's attention was focused not so much on her head, as it was on her chest. Her eyes followed his line of vision, down to her cleavage, and she shrieked again, throwing her hands to her mouth, as she saw the hole in her chest from where the stake had been. "What's going on? Am... Am I dead?" she whimpered.

" _ **Something like that,**_ " Toshio mumbled. "Never mind all that, I'll explain later, come on!" He caught her by the wrist and drug her out of the building. He stayed on his guard the entire trip back. He would have a hard time explaining things if one of the villagers saw him with the two teenage corpses, and with neither of them having fed, he had to be quick about getting them back to the clinic before they were both trying to feed on him.

It was just around nine-thirty when he made it back to the abandoned clinic. He lead Megumi in and told her to stay put. He carried Masao to the basement door and threw the still unconscious male down the stairs, quickly shutting the door.

"What the...? Masao!?" Tohru exclaimed, when he saw his former friend's unconscious body thud against the ground.

"Oh, Dr. Ozaki, just WHAT are you doing?" Ritsuko quietly fretted.

Toshio lead Megumi to the door of the room where the medical blood supply was kept. He ordered her to stay outside the door, hoping that the 'we can enter by invitation only' rule applied not just to buildings, but to rooms as well. He grabbed a vial of blood and handed it to her. "Here, drink this," he told her, "It doesn't taste very good, but it'll help the healing process." Megumi blinked curiously at him, but nodded and drank what she was believing to be medicine. Toshio watched quietly as the wounds in both her head and chest healed. That was a sight that never ceased to amaze him.

"What...? What just...? How did?" Megumi stuttered in amazement.

He grabbed five more vials, handing her a second one. "Here, drink another," he ordered. She took it from him and as she pressed it to her lips, he caught her by the wrist and lead her back to the basement. He had to feed the others, before himself with four hungry Shiki on his hands.

Tohru and Ritsuko had only just been untied the night before, as he began to believe he could trust them not to attack him, as long as he kept them fed. Though, he had not yet told them what he had in store for them.

Tohru let out a yelp and pressed his back against the wall when he saw the pink haired girl following the doctor. "Tohru?" Ritsuko questioned, worriedly.

Tohru raised a shaky hand and pointed toward Megumi. "Wh-WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE!?" he exclaimed.

"Tohru...?" Ritsuko wrapped her arms around him, confused as to why Tohru was reacting this way.

"What's wrong with him?" Megumi asked, peeking around the doctor, her hands tucked behind his back.

Toshio chuckled. "Oh, I think I get it now." He walked over to Tohru and Ritsuko, pushing his face into the blond's. "She's the one who killed you, isn't she?" he asked in a whisper. Tohru closed his eyes and nodded. The boy's fear was understandable, under such circumstances. "Well, don't go upsetting her. She doesn't seem to remember anything from before I found her this afternoon."

"Amnesia?" Ritsuko asked.

"Exactly," Toshio said, handing Ritsuko and Torhu both their vials. "I found her underneath some rubble, with a large gash in her head, I think it broke through the skull and damaged her brain. She didn't even remember her own name."

Suddenly, Masao's body began to move again. The pale, skinny teenager stood, a vacant look on his face. He turned and lunged for the doctor again. But again, the doctor was too quick for him. He sidestepped the attacking Shiki and kicked one of Masao's legs out from under him. Tohru and Ritsuko both moved to one side or the other, as well, and Masao face planted into the wall behind them. "Either the hunger has slowed him down, or that gaping wound in his chest. Ritsuko, restrain him for me, would you?"

Masao whirled around and hissed. Right now, he was lost in the thralls of hunger, not recognizing friend nor foe, all he knew was that he smelled blood and he needed it. Tohru's eyes widened as he finally took notice of the hole in Masao's chest. "Wait? They got him in the heart? How is he still...?"

"Dextrocardia," Toshio answered as Ritsuko wrestled Masao to the ground.

"You mean his heart's...?" Tohru started.

Toshio smiled and nodded. "That's right, it's on the wrong side of the body. It's rare, but Masao here was born with his heart on the right, rather than the left." Toshio knelt in front of Masao, once Ritsuko had him restrained. As a nurse, this had been part of her job for unruly patients or elderly ones who had to be lifted and moved about. "I should have left you in that state of suspended animation until I got you back here," he grumbled, "That's twice tonight you've tried to bite me." He forced the first flask to Masao's lips and turned it up, forcing the thick red liquid down the wounded Vampire's throat. Megumi gave a tiny gasp and watched wide eyed as Masao's chest wound healed, just as hers had. Once the first flask was empty, he quickly repeated the treatment with the second.

"He gets two?" Tohru asked. Toshio had only been giving Tohru and Ritsuko one a night.

"He and Megumi have been lying on the body pile, staked in the chest and starved for three nights now, I'm not taking my chances of having hungry wounded Vampires around," Toshio said.

"V-Vampires...?" Megumi asked.

Tohru's arms fell limp at his side as he turned to face his pink haired murderess. "You really DON'T remember anything do you?" he asked. Megumi blinked at him and shook her head innocently. " _Aoi and Tamotsu are dead, and Megumi doesn't remember,_ " Tohru thought, slowly walking into a dark corner of the room, trying to hide the tears that started running down his cheeks. " _Natsuno, I'm so sorry... You died in vain, and it was all my fault!_ "

Masao swallowed the last of the blood from the second vial and regained his senses, shaking his head, he looked around. "What? Where am I? Nurse Kunihiro...?" Masoa glanced away from the nurse, toward the doctor and shrieked. "D-DOCTOR OZAKI!?" He scrambled away, on all fours, like a spider and Megumis stifled a scream with her hands. Seeing him move like that was horrifying to her. "Don't kill me, Doctor, don't kill me."

"I'm NOT going to kill you, Masao," Dr. Ozaki said, "I just saved your sorry hide."

" _ **Should have left them both for the sun,**_ " Tohru scoffed.

"TOHRU!" Ritsuko exclaimed in disappointment.

The blond shook his head, sinking to his knees, his arms wrapped around himself, and his back still turned to the others. " _ **Should have left me, too.**_ "

Toshio turned his eyes to the grieving blond. He already knew Tohru would be one of his more interesting specimens. "Just what ARE you planning to do with us, Doctor?" Ritsuko asked.

"Ritsu, when Kyouko rose, I conducted several experiments to try and learn how your kind works. How you feed, how you heal, how to kill your kind. My work was in the name of science, but I was hurried to put a stop to the Kirishiki family before they turned the whole town, so I still had much to learn about you before I ended her. Here, I am fortunate enough to have not one, but four specimens, two of each gender, no less. Each with some sort of unique condition. Kyouko was freshly risen, hadn't eaten, didn't know what was going on. You were once a nurse, and yet you haven't bitten anyone since you rose. Masao has Dextrocardia. Megumi has lost her memories of everything she's done up until this point, and Tohru..." The blonde flinched.

Ritsuko sighed, "He's sensitive...?"

Toshio smirked. "You could say that."

"What if we refuse?" Tohru asked, "What if we don't agree to partake in your experiments?"

"I'm not giving any of you the option," Toshio answered. He waited for the resounding, 'Huh' that he knew was coming, then continued, "I know how to kill each and every one of you, if it comes to that," he reminded them, "I'm the reason you're the last remaining members of your kind still living here in, too. If any of you leave this building, you put yourself at risk of being discovered by the remaining villagers. They don't care about the sciences behind it, they will kill you on site. As long as you're down here, I'll leave you all untied, and keep you all fed using a good faith system. I will have to restrain you during the experiments, of course, but that's for safety measures."

"What do you intend to do with this research, Doctor?" Ritsuko asked.

"I can either use it to expose your kind to the world and teach people how to defend themselves from the rest of you. Or, I could use it to help your kind learn how to live amongst humans without attacking them, preventing another incident like what happened here,"the doctor reasoned.

"Well, if those are your reasons, I will submit to any of your experiments," Ritsuko promised.

"I'd rather not put you through any of them, Ritsu," Toshio said. He could feel the red glowing orbs in Tohru's eyes lock on him as he said this, but he ignored the blond and gently took the nurse's wrist in his hand. "You're a nurse, first and foremost, I could use an assistant."

Ritsuko frowned at Toshio and pulled her hand away from his. Her black eyes were full of disappointment. Perhaps, if he'd come to her when she was alive, she could have been naive enough to agree. If she hadn't realized her feelings for Tohru after she convinced him to release Yasuyo, maybe she would still hold those hidden feelings she'd once thought she had for her former boss. But now, she was a Shiki, an undead creature who needed blood to live, and yet, she was more human than the human standing before her. She shook her head. "NO," she refused, "I will submit to your experiments, but I will NOT conduct them with you on the others against their will."

Toshio closed his eyes and sighed. "So be it. Just remember, I gave you the chance." He turned to head upstairs. "I'm not through setting up upstairs. I know you can't enter an occupied building without being invited, but I don't know if it works for each individual room as well. Just in case it does work that way, though, THIS is the only room any of you are allowed in without me taking you there first, and your invitations into those rooms will only exist until I return you to the basement, until the next time I call for you."

"You can't keep us here like animals!" Tohru protested. Unfortunately for them, it did work that way.

"Why not? You're all legally dead. With the exception of Ritsuko, I've personally written the death certificate for every one of you." He smiled smugly at the blond. "You're my first subject, Tohru, you and Megumi have been dead the longest. We start tomorrow night." With that, he shut and locked the basement door.

Megumi sobbed, burying her head in her hands. "I don't understand any of this!"

"Hey, Megumi," Masao said, walking up and placing his cold hands on her shoulders, "Come now, don't cry."

Megumi shook Masao off and stepped away. Her eyes weren't full of the usual disgust and resentment she'd always met him with, but fear of the unfamiliar. "Megumi?" Masao reached out for her and she backed away further.

"She's lost her memory, Masao," Tohru said, "Haven't you been paying attention?"

"Tohru..." Ritsuko wrapped her arms worriedly around the blond. She could understand his frustrations, everything he'd been forced to do under Tatsumi's orders had been in vain. His best friend was lost to him. His brother and sister both dead, after the promise they would be spared, and now, the girl who'd killed him the first time stood before him, unable to even remember her own name.

" _ **Lost... her memory...?**_ " Masao mumbled a loud, staring blankly at the quiet, frightened pink haired girl. A smile swept across his face. " _Now's my perfect chance!_ " he thought, licking his lips. "Megumi, don't pull away," he said, pushing closer to her, pinning her to the wall between his arms. "It's me, Masao," he said, softly, "Your boyfriend, remember?" Megumi's eyes widened and looked him over. She couldn't remember anything, but she honestly didn't think HE was her type. In fact, if she had to choose between the two, she'd prefer the blond. Masao leaned in for a kiss.

"No!" she squeaked, closing her eyes and turning her head away, one of her long fluffy pink pony tails swatting him in the face.

"Knock it off, Masao!" Tohru scolded, pushing between the two of them and punching the younger male. He was older, both in human years, and as an Okiagari, meaning he was stronger and faster.

"Tohru!?" Ritsuko gasped.

The blond wasn't acting like himself. His own mind was in a mental wreck. He wanted his friend back, his brother and sister back, his life and family back. He wasn't in the mood to deal with this skinny little freak's antics. Masao had been a fake friend for years, and Tohru knew it, but had always been too kind of a soul to break off the friendship when they were alive. Tohru wasn't aware of Masao's actions at his funeral, but had he been, he'd be even angrier at the seventeen year old. What had been the straw to break the camel's back was that Masao had taken sheer delight in the knowledge that Natsuno had been carried away to be cremated, and cheered Tohru on when learning Tohru was the one to bite Natsuno, rather than ask Tohru how he was handling the whole affair. As Tohru scanned his new cell mates, he frowned. "I'm the only one down here even feeling a shred of guilt, aren't I?" he scoffed, walking away. Tohru slumped into a corner and buried his face into his knees.

Megumi quietly watched the blond cross the room. She skirted her way around the older teenager who was still holding his nose where the blond had struck him, and walked over to Tohru. "Um..." she said quietly. Tohru flinched. He didn't really want to look at her. She had sired him, she had taken his life out of bitter jealousy over his best friend, the friend he'd been forced to kill, and now she didn't remember any of it. It just didn't seem fair to him that he was the only one left to bare that burden. She shifted timidly, not understanding why he was behaving like he was. "Thank you," she said quietly, before turning and going to another corner of the room.

Toshio left the abandoned clinic. His new subjects would be safe hidden down there. As long as his clinic in Sotoba still stood, there was very little risk of the villagers trying to pillage the abandoned, run down clinic here in Mizobe. He made his way back to Sotoba, there were still a few small supplies and equipment that he needed before he was ready to conduct his experiments. On his way, he passed by the pit that had been intended to become a mass grave for Shiki and human alike. He recalled the two Jinrou that had fought to the death out there, and the explosion.

"It's a shame I can't get one of them to run test o-n..." he thought out loud. He stopped his vehicle and jumped out, running to the pit. "Is it even possible? They're stronger and faster than their sires, and the only rule that they share with the Shiki is that they have to be invited in. These day walkers can go out in the sunlight, aren't deterred by religious artifacts, can eat human food without the need of human blood, and can even kill the Shiki. Is it even possible one of them survived?"

Toshio pulled a shovel out of the back of his vehicle and began to dig through the debris in the pit. Half way down, he found the bodies of the two Jinrou. Natsuno, the violet haired fifteen year old, and Tatsumi the older green haired male that had served the Shiki leader. He drug both of their bodies out of the rubble and took them back to his clinic in Sotoba. If they were still alive, he'd find out when he got them there.

The humans were all hidden away. Toshio was the only one brave enough to venture outside in the middle of the night any more. He drug both of the Jinrou into the clinic and strapped them both down. He checked them over, to see which, if either, had survived the explosion. Tatsumi would be dangerous to let loose, of this, he was certain, but if the older Jinrou had survived and the younger had not, he would still keep the green haired male as a test subject.

Toshio smiled as he checked over each Jinrou. "I believe I've found my Subject X," he chuckled.


	2. First Experiments

_**Malpractice**_

 _ **CHAPTER 2: First Experiments**_

 _ **Author'sNote:**_ Fair warning, folks, this chapter is torturous. I know I love to watch my guys squirm, but I felt so sorry for my poor Tohru-Chan in all of this! I even had to stop reading what I was typing and stare at my husband's computer screen, just letting my fingers do the work during some parts of it. Again, thanks to OmniXenderman for help with this story. I still haven't introduced his theory on how things work, Toshio will have to examine all, or at least a few more of his test subjects before he draws those conclusions, but I still appreciate Omni's help with all the brainstorming for chapters to come. By the way, in this story, Toshio is the only one who knows Natsuno came back as a Jinrou. When he says there's only two Jinrou who's existence he knows about, he's referring to Natsuno and Tatsumi. Tohru and the others only know Tatsumi and Yoshie. None of them know that there were a total of four, as what happened to Seishin remains unknown to them, and Tatsumi is the only one everyone knows about.

 _ **NOTE! This chapter is subject to change!**_

* * *

Toshio turned on the camera. He had Tohru strapped to a dirty old hospital bed. Tohru knew what he was about to be put through was going to be painful, most likely torturous. But, he reluctantly conceded to the experiments. Toshio and Ritsuko both seemed to believe a further medical understanding of the Shiki would be helpful, either to the Shiki, or the humans, or both. Tohru quietly convinced himself that if he followed through with the experiments, then maybe he could alleviate himself some of the guilt and emotional torment he was feeling. So, while reluctant, he was a willing participant.

 _ **"The date is November 15th, 1995"**_

 _ **"The time, 9:35 pm."**_

 _ **"My name is Dr. Toshio Ozaki."**_

 _ **"I'm recording in the after math of a bloodbath here in the village of Sotoba. In the last four months, we have been under attack from a group of creatures, more specifically Okiagari, which call themselves Shiki. These reanimated corpses look and act just like they did before death. The difference, however, is that they rely on human blood to sustain themselves, they possess inhuman strength and speed, and an accelerated healing rate. This is my second attempt to study them. My first subject was my own Wife, Kyouko Ozaki, who's death was confirmed on the 10th of October."**_

 _ **"Kyouko, Subject A, is no longer with us, and unfortunately, all of my original documents and research have been lost in a fire. Therefore, I'm recreating my original examinations with a new specimen."**_

 _ **"In my original research, I only had Subject A, a female of the species. Now, I have the privilege of six specimens."**_

Tohru blinked and looked at the doctor curiously. " _SIX? But there's only four of us in the basement...?_ " he thought.

 _ **"Subject C, Ritsuko Kunihiro, a former nurse under my employment . Possibly the only member of her species who hasn't claimed a victim to feed upon. When I procured her, she had gone several days without eating, having nearly starved herself. Subject D, Megumi Shimizu, a young girl, age 15, going on 16, the oldest SHIKI among my current test group, Death Confirmed on August 15, currently suffering memory loss due to a blow to her skull. Subject E, Masao Murasako, Age 17, born with Dextrocardia. Behind me, Subject B. Tohru Mutou, age 18, Death Confirmed September 17th, sired by Subject D. Quite possibly my most fascinating specimen among the SHIKI, as he's the only one of the four to sire a Jinrou."**_

" _Wait...? I DID WHAT!?_ " Tohru thought, his eyes focusing on the doctor. "MHT?" came the muffled exclamation.

 _ **"Which brings me to Subject X, the Jinrou. I will keep separate records on the Jinrou, and thus won't reveal my Subject's identity here. What I will state is that the Jinrou is a part of the same clan, only faster and stronger, much more dangerous. While the Shiki need human blood to survive and can't enter into the sunlight, and have to sleep during the day, a Jinrou is not phased by the sun. The Jinrou can eat human food, but still occasionally needs to feed on blood. They follow the same rule of not being able to enter an occupied building without being invited, but don't seem to have any of the same weaknesses as their Shik brethren. Jinrou are rare, and I'm only aware of the confirmed existence of two."**_

" _Tatsumi and Yoshie, those are the only two I knew of?_ " Tohru thought, " _What does he mean I sired one? And who does he have?_ "

Toshio lifted the camera and walked over to Tohru.

 _ **"I have taped Subject B's mouth shut, to avoid any reflexive urges to bite during this procedure. As you can see, the boy is rather animate. As previously mentioned, I will be using Subject B to reconduct my original experiments on Subject A. Subject A's cornea had been completely clear, four days after death. Typically, the cornea clouds up, around 48 hours after death, covering the pupil."**_

Toshio reached down and pressed his thumb and forefinger to Tohru's eyelids, forcing the eye wide open and zooming in with the camera.

 _ **"If you note Subject B's eyes, all color has left them. Once a honey brown, Tohru's eyes are now solid black, the pupil no longer noticeable. All four of my Shiki subjects have this trait. This does not seem to be a trait that carried over to the Ji-n..rou...?"**_

Toshio's eyes went wide for a moment of realization and his jaw dropped for a moment. " _Curious? Does it take time after rising for this to occur in a Shiki, or was Kyouko...? Tatsumi WAS the one who bit her, after all?_ " Toshio thought.

 _ **"As I recall, what little cloudiness there was in Subject A's eyes had begun to clear within three days. I will have to further research this phenomenon later."**_

Toshio hooked Tohru to an IV.

 _ **"Next, I shall draw blood through the catheter from the artery. Take note that the subject's blood is black. Such had been the case with Subject A, as well."**_

Tohru watched with morbid curiosity as his blood collected into the catheter bag. His father's position as clinic director and Ritsuko's position as a nurse had actually given him a slight interest in medical procedures. He still had his moments of squeamishness, but he still held a small amount of medical knowledge.

Toshio waited until the bag was mostly full, then moved it aside. Turning off the light, he focused the camera on the bag. Torhu's eyes widened as he saw what the doctor was focusing on.

 _ **"A perfect recreation of the original results. When the black blood is sheltered from light, a bright red thread-like liquid can be seen mixed together."**_

Toshio readied a microscope slide with some of the blood.

 _ **"Let's look at it from a microscopic point of view. The red blood cells from Subject A were still disintegrating, while small red granules could be seen in the vermeil-colored parts, proving the body wasn't completely dead, but slowly undergoing change, completely different from how a normal body decomposes..."**_ He adjusted the camera and microscope as he spoke. _**"Within twenty four hours, the bright red threads had enlarged, carrying small granule-like things. The same can be seen here in Subject B's blood."**_

Toshio turned to face his patient, retraining the camera onto Tohru.

 _ **"There's no need for an EEG to show signs of brain activity. Also there is no question that rigor mortise is completely gone."**_

Toshio sat the camera on the tripod and slipped a blood pressure cup on Tohru's arm. He placed a hand to Tohru's throat.

 _ **"No respiration."**_ He held a mirror over Tohru's face, angled so the camera can take note. The glass didn't fog. He set the glass down and began to work with the blood pressure cup. _**"No blood pressure, no pulse."**_

He approached Tohru and removed the tape over the blond's mouth, once again hovering the camera over the teenager. "Open your mouth Tohru," he ordered. Tohru reluctantly did as he was told and Toshio zoomed the camera in.

 _ **"With Subject A, I had tried using a BVM resuscitator, but it did nothing. Like wise, a heart massage and defibrillator did not revive heart beat. The closest an Okiagari comes to breathing is simulation of it in order to speak."**_ He holds Tohru's mouth open, focusing in on the teeth. _**"Upon closer inspection of the dental work, you'll take note that the canines have become elongated and sharp, fang-like in nature, they're even retractable to prevent accidental self biting. I have a morbid curiosity as to whether or not one will grow back if broken."**_

Torhu's eyes opened wide in tearful fear at those words, snapping onto the doctor. A small part of his old self still existed, after all.

Toshio laughed. "Relax, Torhu," the doctor said, "You don't need them as long as I have a reserve supply of blood, but I'm not about to yank your fangs out, just yet."

Toshio sat the camera back on its tripod, replaced the tape over Tohru's mouth, and picked up a syringe, drawing a single pint of blood.

 _ **"Prior research shows that when left aside, blood does not coagulate, nor separate. I does however grow darker over time. I do not have samples that have been left to sit out at the moment, but as one can plainly see, Subject B's blood is a very dark black. With my previous subject, I experimented, adding several different chemicals to the blood, but had no reactions. I will be recreating these experiments over time with samples from all of my new subjects. In the meantime, THIS I can still reproduce."**_ Toshio sliced the tip of his forefinger open and let a few drops of his blood fall into the the sample he was holding.

Tohru's eyes widened as the smell of FRESH blood hit him. The blond Shiki began to squirm against his restraints. Toshio looked over his shoulder at his suddenly VERY animate patient. It didn't take him long to figure out what had triggered this reaction. He sat down the sample, realizing he had the chance to reveal something to the camera that he'd not done with Kyouko. "Calm down, kid," he said quietly. Almost as if on command, Torhu fell still, staring up at the doctor. Toshio smiled at him. "Let me finish this," he nudged his head in the direction of the sample, then held his bleeding finger up in front of Tohru's face, "And then I'll let you have some of this."

He returned to the camera and picked up the blood sample. He smiled at the beaker, as it had the very results he'd wanted to recreate.

 _ **"As one can see, once I added my own blood, the Shiki's has returned to a bright red, as though it has revived. This dark blood is their life force."**_ He caps off the test tube, cutting off the oxygen. _**"I'm cutting off the oxygen now. By the end of my experiments tonight, this blood will have returned to the same thick dead black color it had been when I drew it."**_ He sat down the beaker and returned to Tohru, once again removing the tape over the blond's mouth. Tohru gave off a low, hungry growl. Toshio frowned. He wasn't use to this sort of behavior from the boy. "Well, I have been feeding you all blood from the medical reserve..." He took the scalpel and pressed it into his wrist, digging just deep enough to draw blood. He cautiously lowered his wrist over Tohru's mouth. Tohru hesitated, the real him struggling to stave off the 'possession' that was the hunger caused by his condition. But after a moment, he tilted his head upward and bit into Toshio's wrist. The doctor flinched as he felt the fangs pierce through the skin and Tohru began to suck the blood from him. After a moment, Tohsio heaved a quiet sigh. He placed two fingers on Tohru's throat. _**"Before feeding, the body was ice cold. But... I can feel a change. The consumption of fresh blood is causing a rise in body temperature. I had never even considered, does it stimulate metabolism?"**_ He loosened the restraint on Tohru's left arm and grabbed his wrist, lifting it upward. _**"STILL no pulse... But some pigment and slight coloration is returning to the skin."**_ Toshio pulled his wrist away from Tohru's mouth, taping it shut once more, now were the more painful portions of the experiment. He bandaged his wrist and turned back to the camera.

 _ **"I will reconduct this portion of the experiments for the sake of documentation. I still have a few hours before sunrise. I began at 9:35, and it is now 10:50. I have a wide variety of chemicals on hand. Some are poisonous, some are anesthetics, no matter what they are, they're all suppressants and depressants. They cause slight discomfort, but do not seem to have any permanent effect. I will start with a simple knock out gas."**_

He placed the gas mask over Tohru's face, completely covering the blond's nose and mouth. He turned on the gas. Tohru squirmed as the smell of the gas assaulted his nose. Even though he inhaled it, there was little to no effect. At the very most, one of his fingers felt numb, but not much else. Toshio then moved on to intravenous injections of other drugs used by doctors to render patients unconscious. Each new chemical was taken from a freshly opened bottle, with a clearly printed label, so there could be no question as to what they were. Nitrous Oxide, Thiopental and Katmine, Pentazocine and Morphine. Nothing beyond slight discomforts, regardless of dosage. Pesticides and disinfectants came next; Paraquat, Cresol and Glutardialdehyde. Toshio even swapped to cleaning products, such as Bleach. Again, none of these had an effect, beyond Torhu showing signs of feeling a burning or itching sensation that, due to his restraints, he couldn't satisfy until the sensations passed.

Tohru's screams were muffled as he thrashed about, tears streaming down his cheeks. As the final sensation of discomfort passed, he fell limp, staring up at the ceiling, giving a tiny whimper of relief. He regretted having agreed to this.

Toshio took up a fresh scaple. Tohru's eyes widened and he flinched, with a whimper. He knew this part was coming sooner or later. Toshio zoomed the camera in and removed Tohru's shirt and moved the trypod closer. _**"This is where things become difficult. With no way to numb the pain, or knock the Shiki unconscious, there is no way to render them unconscious during surgical procedures."**_ Toshio poised the scalpel over Tohru's abdomen and in spite of the teen's whimper at the touch of the cold steel, began to slice him open. Toshio knew he had to work quickly or the wounds would heal as quick as they were made. He used surgical clamps to keep the cut area open. _**"There's no liver mortis. Not surprising. No presence of any of the gases commonly present in a decomposing body. This is also expected."**_ He sighed and looked at the boy with a quiet frown. "I'm sorry, Tohru, I can't promise you this won't hurt." Unlike with Kyouko, there was no true disconnect between Toshio and the four Shiki. He'd delivered the three teens at birth, and watched them grow up, Tohru more than the other two, as he would sometimes have to come to the clinic while his father was at work during the summer. Then there was Ritsuko. She had been his favorite nurse while she worked under him. On top of that, there was no longer an enemy he was in a rush to rid the village of. This made things more difficult.

Still, this was for research pupurposes, to learn more about the Shiki, to help educate the rest of the world, to prevent another blood bath like the one this village was now recovering from. He took a deep breath and picked up the scalple again. _**"Note, the lack of function in the lungs."**_ He sliced both open. Tohru flinched, but couldn't make a sound now. In a matter of moments, his lungs healed closed, and Tohru let out soft, quiet whimpers.

Toshio took up a mallet and struck one of Tohru's ribs as hard as he could. Tohru let out a muffled scream of pain as the bone made a cracking noise. The bone took longer to heal than the soft tissue of the lungs. Yet, the wound still healed. Toshio gasped. He glared at the Shiki. It was almost as if seeing the body heal itself without his assistance irritated him.

Using the clamps to keep the surgical lasceration from healing, Toshio took up the scalple and began to make other cuts into Tohru's flesh. However, he wasn't ready to loose one of his test subjects yet, so he avoided the heart altogether. He even slashed open Tohru's throat, just as with the slice to the lungs, it stopped the boy's muffled screaming for the duration of the time that the wound was open. Toshio's eyes widened. Then the doctor began to laugh. _**"Well, THERE'S something unexpected!"**_ He turned to the camera, hands on his hips. _**"Tohru's tonsils were surgically removed when he was eight years old. This was in part because the morning mountain air here in Sotoba continued to cause them to swell, and even inflicted him with Tonsilitise and Strep Throat, more than once. It's possible I did not remove every last piece of the tonsils during that time, but they shouldn't have grown back. However, there they are, fully in tact."**_

Toshio shook his head as he finally closed the boy's body back and removed the clamps. There was no need for stitches, the wounds healed on their own. Tohru gave quiet whimpers and moans as his body began to heal. His extremities twitched a little as his body tried to work harder to close so many wounds at once. Had Toshio not allowed him to feed before hand, it may have taken him a full twenty-four hours to fully heal every single cut. Toshio looked at his watch, at this rate, he'd be leading Tohru back to the basement, just an hour or so before the sun was begining to rise.

Toshio removed the tape over Tohru's mouth and undid the restraints. Tohru made no moves to retaliate against the doctor. Knowing the person Tohru had been before being bit, this came as no surprise to Toshio. Had his first, most painful experiments been on Masao, or Megumi with her memory in full, he would have expected a full on attempt to retaliate for that last bit of torture.

Even so, Toshio could see it, what the Shiki had put Tohru through had left the blond a broken shell, now struggling to hold on to what little of his humanity he had left. Toshio brushed a few stray strands of Torhu's naturally unruly honey blond hair out of the boy's face. "Is there any lingering pain, Tohru?" he asked.

Tohru remained silent for a while, staring at the floor, not reacting. After a moment, he closed his eyes. "No, Doctor," he said, "I think I'm fine."

Toshio knew better. Tohru had submitted to this in hopes of penance for what his former masters forced him to do, but the whole proceedure had only left him further traumatized. " _I wonder if I should tell him?_ " Toshio thought, looking the boy over. " _No, if he knows, he may try to leave, and that will only put him at risk of running into the villagers._ " Toshio helped Tohru down from the medical bed. "Come on, let's get you back downstairs." Tohru gave a quiet nod and let the doctor lead him out of the examination room.

As they entered the main hall, Tohru twitched and froze for a moment, his eyes widening. He felt his body becoming slugish. His arms and legs starting to feel like dead weights. The sun was rising and his body was shutting down. He had to reach the basement in order to find somewhere safe to sleep. He wheeled around and looked at the doctor, an accusing look in his eyes. Had the doctor know then sun was rising at this very instance?

Toshio looked curiously at him, then down at his watch again. The doctor's eyes widened. "Damn!" He looked back up at Tohru. His watch had stopped, exactly an hour ago. "Run for it, Tohru," he said.

"Hell," Tohru scoffed, turning and rushing for the basment door. The first beams of light began to trickle through the windows and doors of the abandoned clinic. Tohru's skin began to crackle and pop, blooming with blisters, which burst into ash. Toshio quickly followed after him, pulling the keys to the basement out of his pocket. Tohru slid to a stop at the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. He sank to his knees, tears forming in his eyes. "Doctor, open the door quickly, please," he pleaded, "I don't want to die like this!"

"You're not going to," Toshio assured him, quickly unlocking and opening the door to the basement.

Tohru leapt to his feet and scrambled down the stairs, rushing to the darkest corner of the room and curling into a ball. Slowly, even these injuries began to heal. The blond Shiki quietly scanned the room, he didn't blame the doctor for locking the door behind him and not following him down. If instinct took over him, he would have attached the doctor, whether he wanted to or not. Masao, Ritsuko, and Megumi were already all lost in the thralls of the dead sleep. His only reason for still being awake was the sheer unmitigated trauma he'd just experienced. As his wounds healed, the sleep began to take over. He closed his eyes, but struggled to stay awake. Soon, he couldn't fight it any more, and his eyes closed. He fell asleep with his head rested against the wall and his knees tucked up to his chest.

Toshio locked the door with a sigh. "That was close!" He yawned. He'd been up for hours now. He decided on a quick nap, before returning to the clinic in Sotoba, and his OTHER patients.


	3. Amnesia

_**CHAPTER 3:**_ ** _Amnesia_**

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 _ **Author's Note:**_ Sorry for the delay on this chapter, I've been holding off until after my husband's birthday (August 15th) and our 12-Year Anniversary (August 16th) had passed to focus on any of my writing. Unfortunately, this means the next chapter of Pyromancy missed getting posted on the story's 1-Year Anniversary (August 13th). Originally, OmniXenderman and I had planned on letting Subject X meet with the four Shiki in the basement, but I think Megumi's exam in this chapter may have run a bit too long for that. Oh, and Omni, thanks a bunch for the beta read!

* * *

Sorry for the delay on this chapter, I've been holding off until after my husband's birthday (August 15th) and our 12-Year Anniversary (August 16th) had passed to focus on any of my writing. Unfortunately, this means the next chapter of Pyromancy missed getting posted on the story's 1-Year Anniversary (August 13th). Originally, OmniXenderman and I had planned on letting Subject X meet with the four Shiki in the basement, but I think Megumi's exam in this chapter may have run a bit too long for that.

The four Shiki began to stir as the sun set. Ritsuko was the first to wake. She rushed to Tohru's side, and gently shook him awake. "Tohru...? Tohru?" she called sweetly.

Tohru slowly opened his eyes. He gave her a weak smile, before reaching out and throwing his arms around her, with a quiet sob. "Ritsu..." he whispered.

"Tohru," she sighed, "Are you alright?"

"No..." Tohru said, trembling. "I thought... I hoped that if I went along with this, I would feel less guilty about what I've done. Why, Ritsu? Why am I the only one who's left that has to bear the burden of what's happened?"

Ritsuko looked over toward the other two Shiki. Megumi was still stirring, and Masao was creeping closer to her. "You're not the ONLY one," she said irritably.

"KYAAA!" Megumi shrieked as she fluttered her eyes open, to find Masao's face just mere inches away from her own. Two inches closer, and his lips could have touched hers.

"That's different, HE doesn't seem to feel sorry for any of it," Tohru huffed, scrambling to his feet. In the blink of an eye, the blond was between Masao and Megumi, his fist meeting Masao's mouth.

"OW! Tohru, what'd you do that for?" Masao whined, frowning at his former friend.

"LEAVE HER ALONE, MASAO!" the older male ordered, "Can't you see you're scaring her?" Megumi quietly peeked around from behind Tohru's shoulder, staring timidly at Masao.

Masao growled. "Why are you defending her?" the younger asked, "She never liked you. Isn't she the one who killed you? Don't tell me you're still under her control?"

"I'm not under anybody's control!" Tohru retorted, "And in case you haven't noticed, I've had it up to here with your professional viticm act!" Tohru held his hand above his head. "I've got enough on my concience without leaving her to you. But it doesn't do me any good to hold a grudge against her if she doesn't remember what she did!"

"Big brother will beat you up if you don't leave me alone!" Megumi spat, sticking her tongue out at the lanky black haired Shiki.

"Big bro... Wha...!?" Tohru exclaimed, blushing slightly.

Ritsuko put a hand to her mouth and giggled at Tohru's reaction. 'Big Brother' was the best thing Megumi could have called him. She hoped that if this became a recurring thing, it would help heal some of the hurt in Tohru's heart.

"What's gotten into you, Tohru?" Masao asked, wide eyed and confused. "This isn't like you at all. You're never this violent..." Masao frowned. "You spent too much time with that Natsuno jerk before she turned you, didn't you?"

"Don't you ever speak his name again!" Masao took another punch to the mouth, this one sending him flying back across the room. "You're right, this isn't like me," he admitted. "Masao, in the last three months, I've died, come back to life, been forced to feed on the blood of people I've known my whole life, and killed my best friend in order to protect my family!" he growled. "No one gave a damn how I felt about it when it happened, and my brother and sister were killed anyway!"

Masao blinked at him. "You mean, Aoi and Tamotsu are...?" he asked.

Tohru frowned at him, then pointed a finger at Megumi. "And the person who started it all doesn't even remember doing it, or why she did! Notice she didn't even react when you said his name?" The tears were welling up in Tohru's eyes, but he tried not to let them run this time. Ritsuko couldn't help finding the look of confusion on Megumi's face rather adorable. "We've got bigger things to worry about than what Dr. Ozaki has in store for us, and bigger things than fighting amongst ourselves," he sighed. "Last night... I learned two things that should have us all shaking in our boots."

"Tohru?" Ritsuko asked, going to the blond's side and placing a hand on his shoulder.

Tohru closed his eyes and shook his head. "Tatsumi may still be alive," he said. No reaction from Megumi, but Masao cringed and Ritsuko's eyes widened. The nurse had only had a small amount of time with either of Sunako's Jinrou servants, but it had been enough to access what kind of 'people' they were.

"Tohru, are you sure?" Ritsuko asked.

"If we're lucky, it's not Tatsumi, but rather Yoshie... Or someone else," Tohru sighed, "The doctor said he has SIX test subjects. The four of us, and I don't know who the others are, but one is a Jinrou."

"What do you mean 'SOMEONE ELSE'?" Masao asked. "There are only TWO Jinrou, Yoshie and Tatsumi."

Tohru shook his head. "No," he said, wrapping his arms around himself. "Just one more sin I have to bear..." He closed his eyes and turned his head toward the floor, biting his bottom lip to prevent it from quivering. "I'm not sure who, but one of my victims has risen up as a Jinrou, too." He put a hand to his head, as if it were hurting him, "They're stronger and faster than any of us, and yet, somehow, I'VE released one of those monsters on the world."

"What? But... But how?" Masao and Ritsuko both exclaimed.

"I don't know," Tohru said, "I know who I would prefer it to be, but that's being too hopeful." He turned and walked back to his corner. "Natsuno was cremated, I've got to face the fact that he's not coming back," he mumbled to himself. "Ritsu's all I have left," he thought, quietly glancing back at the nurse.

As he looked at his current companions, he realized the role he was going to have to take on. 'Big Brother', Megumi had just called him. He did what he'd been told, but still couldn't protect his younger brother and sister. Staying mad at Megumi for something she didn't remember would only be hurting himself. The doctor's experiments weren't pretty in the least. This whole ordeal would take its toll on all of them in more ways than one. Of that he was certain.

Then there was Dr. Ozaki's other subjects. He'd claimed to have six, and mentioned the Jinrou. "Is it only one Jinrou, or two?" Tohru thought. "Does he have Tatsumi and Yoshie in his custody somewhere? Is he keeping them away from us in order to protect us from them? Or is only one a Jinrou and the other Sunako?" Tohru quietly bit his thumb, though he didn't bite hard enough to draw blood. "What did he mean that I sired one?" Tohru turned his eyes back to the other three Shiki, Ritsuko was making sure to stand between Masao and Megumi, in case Masao tried anything else. Tohru was the oldest of the two males, and of the three who were still fully aware of what was going on, or what had happened, he'd been risen the longest.

With Megumi's memory in its current state, she could no longer pull any of power over Tohru, even if she wanted. He had not been her thrall since the last night she bit him, but had she thought to utilize her power over him the night he bit Natsuno, she or Tatsumi would have had no trouble beating him to it. "I just wanted to keep them all safe, and I failed at that, too," he thought, "Will I be able to protect us all this time, or will it all turn out the same?"

The door to the basement swung open and Toshio descended the stairs, carrying four test tubes full of blood. He passed them out. Ritsuko was still hesitant to drink, but she took solace in the fact that no one had to be killed in order to obtain this blood. It had been freely donated for medical emergencies. Knowing this made drinking it weigh less heavy on Tohru's mind as well.

Masao was just happy to be fed. He'd never been very good at hunting and was one of the few who had to rely on others to bring in captives from the big city outside Sotoba in order to feed. When Akira Tanaka had been left in the abandoned house for him to feed, someone stole the boy away from him. He had no idea who it was, they were hiding in the shadows, even his night vision hadn't had time to make out who the person was before they hit him over the head, hard enough to knock him out cold. When he came to, the intruder and the boy were both gone. "If I ever find who did that," Masao thought, rubbing the back of his head, "I swear I'm going to make them pay!"

Megumi had no problem drinking the stuff. It had been the first thing the doctor had given her when he brought her into the clinic. As far as she knew, it was just some kind of medicine that kept her injuries healed and kept her from feeling hungry, and none of the others were inclined to tell her any different.

Ritsuko pulled the flask away from her lips and looked down at it, as she licked her lips to catch whatever may have escaped. "Tosh..." she bit back the doctor's first name, her eyes quietly darting toward the blond teenaged vampire huddled in the corner. "Doctor, you're feeding us from the emergency medical supply, aren't you?" she asked.

"Yes, where else do you think I'd be getting this from?" Toshio asked, taking the flask from her. "I'm a doctor, with a Hippocratic oath, after all."

Ritsuko lowered her head. "That's exactly my point," she mumbled. "We haven't been outside to see the damages ourselves, but the entire village, must be in shambles after the fighting and the fire." She interlinked her fingers and looked away from him. "What are you going to do with us, once the supply runs out?"

Tohru and Masao froze upon hearing those words. The other three Shiki turned their eyes to the doctor and his former nurse. Megumi merely blinked quietly. She still didn't understand the issue. Tohru and Masao, however both stared with their mouths agape. The sound of shattering glass could be heard as Masao dropped his empty flask on the floor. "Wh-What do you mean when it runs out?" the lanky Okiagari stammered. Tohru leaped to his feet, but didn't speak a word.

Toshio lit a cigarette and smiled. "Relax, kids," he said with a smile. "With the dosages I'm feeding you, there's enough supply here to feed you all for a year. IF it all runs out, there's still the supply in my own clinic in Sotoba, which will add another six months, providing I don't have to increase the amounts I'm giving any of you."

"Then what?" Ritsuko asked, turning her attention back to him. "A year and a half that you can feed us like this, then what? Megumi doesn't remember how to hunt on her own, and I refuse to."

"And Masao's no good at it," Tohru added.

"Hey!?" Masao hissed.

Toshio laughed. "Such an interesting selection of test subjects I chose." He looked at Tohru. "One who still holds onto every ounce of guilt for the lives he's effected..." Then to Masao, "One who lacks the skill to hunt..." Turning to Megumi, "One who doesn't even remember how," then to Ritsuko, "And one who refuses." He shook his head. "It's too bad I didn't manage to get ahold of your leader, one of you who's been around as long as she has would have been quite interesting to study by comparison."

Tohru shifted a bit in surprise. "Then, he doesn't have Sunako... So, then... WHO?"

Toshio turned and approached Megumi. He held out his hand. "Well then, Megumi, would you please accompany me upstairs?"

Megumi blinked at him for a moment, and then reached her hand out to take his. "Doctor?" Tohru called. Megumi and Toshio both looked toward the blonde. "Try not to cut it so close tonight, alright?"

Toshio smiled and nodded. "Don't worry, Tohru," he said confidently, "I made sure my watch is working this time." He held up his arm, showing off a new watch. Tohru gave a quiet nod of approval and the doctor lead Megumi upstairs.

"What was that all about?" Ritsuko asked as the door swung shut.

"His watch stopped last night. If he had taken much longer unlocking the door, I would be nothing but ash right now," Tohru answered.

"He kept you out till sunrise!?" Masao exclaimed. Tohru only gave a quiet nod. Masao and Ritsuko exchanged looks, suddenly feeling they better understood Tohru's behavior when he woke up tonight.

Toshio lead Megumi upstairs, to the same room he'd had Tohru in the previous night. The pink haired shiki shuffled hesitantly as she looked around the room. The medical implements that scattered the room made her a bit nervous. Toshio held an open hand out, toward the examination table. "Take a seat, Megumi," he said calmly.

Megumi gave a nod. "Ok," she said meekly as she did as she was told.

Toshio turned on the camera and pulled up a rolling chair.

"The date, November 16th."

"Time, 8:30, PM. I'm beginning my experiments an hour earlier tonight after an unexpected incident yesterday. Due to a miscalculation in time, Subject B was exposed to sunlight as I was returning him to his sleeping area. The results of exposure to sunlight is not something I'm yet ready to record without my patients' permission. At best I can describe it as an advanced form of Hyper Solar Urticaria, a disease that causes the skin to be hypersensitive to sunlight, causing rashes to appear in moments. I'll go into more detail at a later date. In the meantime, let me draw your attention to Subject C, Megumi Shimizu. When I found her, someone had run a stake through her chest, however, they missed her heart, instead boring a hole through her breast plate.. As opposed to killing her, this merely left her in a state of suspended animation. Clearly whoever staked her lacking skill. She had also suffered a severe blow to her head, which damaged her skull and brain. Thanks to her condition, all injuries healed the moment she fed, but she still suffers from memory loss, perhaps the brain will heal….but not with the original neurological structure intact. Tonight, I'm going to attempt to jog her memory with images and questions about places and people she's encountered during her life."

Toshio took his place in the rolling chair and turned his attention back to Megumi, reaching over, he picked up a manilla envelope from a nearby table. Inside were several pictures, which he had already sorted through in front of the camera earlier in the day. He also had a set of Rorschach Test Cards. He started with the Rorschach cards, handing her the first, he explained. "Now, Megumi this is a Rorschach Test. There's no right or wrong answer. I'm going to hand you a card, and I want you to look at the image on it, and tell me what you see, alright?"

Megumi smiled and gave a quiet nod. "Sure, sounds like fun," she answered a she took the first card from the doctor. She blinked at it for a moment in confusion. "It doesn't look like anything," she said, "Just spilled black ink."

Toshio laughed. "Just look at it for a moment. Feel free to turn it from one side or another if you need to. I'll let you give me up to three answers, if you see more than one image."

Megumin glanced up at the docotor and nodded. "Okay," she said, returning her gaze to the card. She traced her finger around the edges of the dark splotch in the center. "A beetle," she said. Dr. Ozaki raised an eyebrow. There were no wrong answers, but that was definately an uncommon one. She looked at it for a moment more and traced her fingers along the center and the jagged edges on the outside. "A headless angel." Yet another unexpected answer.

"Anything else?" Toshio asked, jotting down the first two replies, "Remember you get three answers."

Megumi blinked at it and tilted the picture to the side. She ran her finger along one of the external shapes. "A small dog with big ears, looking at it's reflection in a puddle."

Toshio raised his eyebrow again. These were interesting answers. Normally people associated this first card with a bat, moth, or butterfly. He wondered if her second answer had been influenced by her current condition as a member of the undead. Tohru, having been a gamer may have seen that image and thought it an interesting boss monster, but there was nothing in Megumi's past, to Toshio's knowledge that would influence such a reply. "Megumi, your second answer? A headless angel?"

Megumi nodded. "Look!" she said, turning the card to face him, the camera was perfectly focused to pick up the image as she traced her finger around the curvatures in the center. "Here's the body, and here's the collar to the dress where the angel's head should be, these two lumps on the side that would have been the beetle's pincers are hands, looking for the head, the dog on the outside is the angel's wings, and that little splotch down here at the middrift, where the ink is smeared so you can see the color of the card, that's the head, having just fallen off!"

Toshio froze and stared at her for a moment. It was a morbid thought, coming from a girl who was once always so prim and proper. But now that she outlined it for him, he could definately see the image she was describing. She then pointed to another splotch just at the 'collar' that was smaller, rounder, and in a similar maner to the point where she'd described the head. "And this is a button or pendant," she added. "And this is a belt," she said, running her finger a long a dark horizontal line just at the midsection of the image, connecting to the head.

Toshio smiled at her and cleared his throat. "I see, thank you, Megumi." He took the card from her and handed her the next. "What about this one?"

Megumi looked at it. "Two bears standing over a butterfly," she answered immediately, running a finger over the black images on the outside, and the red splotch between their lower feet. She frowned for a second, "A dead bird," she added, running her fingers along the image in the center, tracing out the bill, head, wings, and tail of the bird, counting the red now as blood, rather than the butterfly she originally took it for. Toshio blinked and leaned foward. NOW he was curious, would she come up with something morbid for all ten cards?

"Anything else?" he asked.

"An old man with red eyes and a bloody beard," she said with a shiver. She didn't bother to trace this image, she simply tossed the card to the side.

"A bloody beard and red eyes?" Toshio asked, reaching for the card.

Megumi nodded, "The blood in his beard is his tears."

Even Toshio shivered as she added this comment. Surely these weren't answers she would have given before Chizuru Kirashiki turned her, were they? Toshio jotted down Megumi's answers and decided not to linger on this card any more. He simply handed her the thrid.

Megumi giggled. "It's a cow!" she said with amusement. She blinked at it, and looked again. "Two butlers, cleaning up a red wine spill." Toshio smiled, glad to see she'd found some bemusement in this black, white, and red ink blot. He wrote down her answers.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"A red bowtie on a bloody tuxedo," she said.

Toshio flinched. There it was again, the morbid reply. Megumi bit her lower lip and frowned at the card. Was it subconcious guilt for her actions before her memory loss, or a memory surrounding her death trying to resurface? He couldn't be certain. He jotted down her answer and handed her the fourth card. "What about this one?" he asked as he traded the cards with her.

Megumi's hands trembled and her eyes grew wide. "A... Lady with long flowing hair," she said, her voice faltering for a moment. Toshio raised an eyebrow. She didn't give colors, but it almost fit the discription of Chizuru or Sunako Kirashiki. Megumi closed her eyes and shook her head. "No, not a lady? A man, in a cape, with shoulder-length hair?"

She sounded uncertain now, but at the same time, the description almost fit Seishiro Kirashiki, Chizuru's human husband. That would make sense, this is known as the "Father" card, but Seishiro was human, only the women had been Okiagari, what would Megumi have to fear from him? Had he held her down while Chizuru bit her the first time? Had they done something more untoward with her? Now that he thought about it, Megumi's parents hadn't allowed him to check when they found her sprawled out in the woods that night, Rape had never been ruled out. He started to move, thinking to check now, but stopped himself as he reminded himself that the Okiagari had a major healing factor. Tohru had even grown back his tonsils, if Megumi had been raped by any member of the Kirashiki family, her hymen most likely would have grown back by now. "Which is it, Megumi?" he asked, calmly, resettling in his seat, or would you rather use both as your first two answers?"

She blinked, she could make out two more images. "The second," she answered, "It's a man. I still have two more answers." Toshio nodded, she'd seemed so uncertain and changed her answer so quickly, he was willing to allow this.

"Alright, what else is there?" he asked.

"A bat, spreading it's wings as it wakes up to fly into the night," she said, turning her eyes to the doctor and holding the card up to show him, tracing the face of the bat at the bottom of the image, that would have otherwise been the man's boots.

"Alright," Toshio nodded, writing down the answer, and taking note that she was much calmer with this answer. "And the third thing you see?"

"A boar," she answered with a smile, "See the piggy's snout, and horns?" she giggled.

Toshio's smile brightened. He was glad to see her being a bit more cheerful now. "Now that you mention it, I do." He handed her the next card, it was a simple splotch. "What about this one?"

She smiled. "A butterfly!" she before she even settled into looking at it. "A bird, skimming the water for a fish," she added, looking closer at it and tilting it on it's side.

Toshio smiled, it seemed they may get through this card quickly and with little morbidity involved. "And?"

"A leaf," she added, handing back the card.

Toshio nodded as he took the card from her, and handed her the next.

Megumi hummed and huhhed over this one for a moment. "A violin?" she said looking at it, "No... Violins aren't jagged like that are they? A guitar maybe?"

Toshio jotted down the answers, noting the change. He found it interesting what she could remember about the rest of the world. He always thought it interesting how amnesia patients were always reported to have forgotten their own names, and people and places in their lives, but NOT how to talk or what items were and what they looked like, just things that pertained to them personally. "What else, Megumi?"

She tilted the image to the side, "A tug boat!" she giggled. Once more, she bit her lower lip as she tilted the image back upright. Again she trembled a little. "Another bat..." she said hesitantly. "No, a creature with bat wings, but human feet, and horns on it's head, hanging upside down."

Toshio sighed, once again, Megumi had taken a trip down the path of darkness. He preferred her more cheerful answers. Even knowing what she was, and what he'd done to his now late wife, he hated seeing the look of fear in the pink haired teenager's eyes. He jotted down her last answer and took the card. "It's ok, Megumi, we're almost done," he assured her as he handed her the seventh card, "We've got this one and three more to go," he promised.

Megumi smiled, at the card, giggled, and laid it in her lap. "It looks like someone's doing this!" she said, tucking her elbows together, holding her arms up and giving a thumbs up on both hands. Toshio smiled. This was a lighter card, silverfish colored ink splashed across the paper. Just as Card four was seen to be the 'Father' Card, this one was commonly known as the 'Mother' Card.

Toshio smiled and jotted down the words, 'Thumbs Up' as her first answer. "Anything else?"

Megumi smiled and nodded. "An open book, and someone's imagining the characters coming out of it."

"I see," Toshio said, impresed with this elaborate answer. "One more, Megumi?"

Megumi shook her head as she turned the card upside down. "No, Doctor, I have two more," she insisted.

"Two?" he asked. Megumi nodded. Toshio gave a curious nod. "Alright, let me here them?"

She held the card upright and turned it so Toshio could see it. "The Geisha Bunnygirl in the moon," she said, pointing to what would have been the thumbs in the thumbs up, "See the ears?" Then to what would have been the pages of the book, "And the Kimono sleeves?"

Toshio smiled and failed to stifle back a chuckle. "Alright, and what's the other image?"

Megumi turned the card completely upside down. "A Lunar Moth, blotting out the moon." She glanced at it again, "Or a girl with a pair of braids and a halo, I can't figure out which."

"That's three more, not two!" Toshio scolded her with a smile, "But I'll allow it this time." He did a double take as Megumi handed back the card. It was still upside down. He tried his best not to laugh as he could definitely make out the hair style she was suggesting. He wondered if maybe her final answere was because it caused another memory to try and resurface, particularly her childhood friend Kaori Tanaka? He jotted down all six of Megumi's answers and handed her the next card. "Alright, what about this one?" he asked.

"Oooh, PRETTY!" she said as she took the card from him, her eyes widening as she took the colored card. Unlike the previous cards, this one was tinted in shades of blue, pink, and orange. Immediately, she pointed at one of the two large pink blots on the side and giggled, "It's a pink mountain panther!" She looked at the card. "There's so many different colors and shapes, I'm not sure I can narrow it down to just three," she said.

"Just try, Megumi," Toshio encouraged, "The next two cards are just as colorful, I promise."

Megumi nodded, "Ok!" She looked again, pointing to the pink and orange splotches at the bottom she stated, "It's another butterfly!" Her eyes then shifted to the darker shades, on the card, dark and light blue. She bit her bottom lip. The dark blue and the white splotches between the colors could have easily been classified as bats, birds, or moths. but it was the contrasting lighter shade of blue above the dark blue that drew her eyes. Once more, she trembled a bit, though not nearly as much as she had with some of the darker cards. "A man in war armor," she said quietly as she handed the card back. She didn't seem interested in tracing out the image for the doctor this time. Toshio took a look at the card, and nodded. He thought he could see the image without her drawing it out for him. He jotted down her answer and quietly passed her the next card.

He was not prepared for the answers that came with this card. She looked at it and insisted on being allowed five answers, as her first seemed like an obvious choice. Toshio sighed and agreed. Butterfly, as she said, pretty obvious with the card's flamboyantly flowing shades of pink, blue, and orange. Fire and smoke, an understandable perception. The orange she associated as two seahorses facing each other, another surprising revelation about images she could remember given her predicament. The next two where the answers that threw him off, however. She pointed at the two large splotches of blue. "Two girls... Upside down, but still, two girls, kissing each other," she said. By now Toshio had lost count of how many times he'd raised his eyebrows during this test. He nodded and jotted down the answer. But, before he could ask if she was willing to turn the paper over and show him the image of the two girls, she did flip it over. She pointed at the puffs of pink. "ME, from the back!" she answered.

Toshio's breath caught in his throat and he sat slack jawed. Sort of glad she didn't decide that when the image was turned upside down the orange looked like chicken legs, he found it rather bemusing the girl had associated the pink with her own pair of pink pigtails and the whole thing as looking at a girl in a dress from behind. After a dumbfounded moment, he began to laugh. That sort of sensation of self importance seemed typical of the girl before she'd lost her memory. "Maybe there's still some of the old Megumi still in there, after all," he chortled as he took the card from her. "Alright, Megumi, last card, let's see what you can come up with?"

Megumi blinked at this last card. It was the most colorful, splotches of pink, green, blue, orange, black, grey, and yellow. The first thing she saw in the abstract scene seemed like something out of a fairy tail. "Two girls, approaching a gate or castle, guarded by two dragons, they're following a fire fairy." She bit her lip. "They shouldn't go in, she said, shaking her head. The birds and butterflies are trying to stop them. Something bad will happen in there."

Toshio leaned forward again, breath hitched in his throat again. Megumi had entered the Kanemasa mansion by herself the night she'd first been bitten by Chizuru, no one had tried to stop her. Was Megumi simply making up a story based on the image, or was this another memory trying to surface? He remembered Kaori Tanaka recounting to that she and Megumi had had an arguement before Megumi stormed off toward the mansion. Given some of Megumi's earlier responses, he was beginign to believe this wasn't her imagination making things up. Her now repressed memories were trying to make senes of what happened to her, trying to make sense of why she was what she was now. This was her longest answer yet, and so story driven. That was the only thing Toshio COULD see this as being. Still, this was just her first answer.

"Megumi, is there anything else?" he asked.

Megumi blinked at the image again. "An underwater castle, with a pair of blue crabs at the entrance, the girls are mermaids," she said, trying to sound much happier. She could have easily cahnged this into an alien abduction story, and this second answer wouldn't have been much different from the first fairy tail, the only difference was that the dragons were now crabs, and her take on them sounded much friendlier than her initial dragons.

"Last time, Megumi, anything else?" he asked.

Megumi looked at the card for a bit more, then shook her head as she handed it back to the doctor. "No, nothing else."

"Alright," Toshio said taking it from her.

"Oh, wait...!" she exclaimed as she got one last look at it from a distance now. "H-Hold it right there?" she said. Toshio looked at her curiously, but held it as she told him to. "Yeah, right there. I do see one more thing," she said. "It's a black haired princess with a long flowing pink dress, with bits of green and yellow, being followed by two servant girls fanning her." She smiled.

Toshio glanced at the card, then back to Megumi, then smiled and laughed. "Alright, I'll accept that," he granted, jotting down the final answer. He sat the Rorchach cards to the side, then heaved a sigh as he passed her the next stack of images.

"More?" she asked.

"No, this is different," he told her, "I want you to look through these pictures and tell me if anyone or anything looks familiar."

"Okay," she said blinking at him.

She sorted through the pictures, but made no interactions to any of them. Her house, her parents, Kaori's dog Love, Ritsuko's dog Tarou, her old high school, her own grave, the temple, the local play ground, Hasigawa's resteraunt... Nothing, not a single reaction or glimmor of recognition in her eyes. People she knew and once showed scorn towards, were now all strangers as she looked at them. She came to a picture of Tohru's family, Mr. and Mrs. Mutou along with Aoi and Tamotsu. Again she showed no signs of recognition. Natsuno Koide/Yuuki, the boy who was once the object of her effections, and that Tohru was now lamenting the loss of, even a candid picture of him recieved no emmotion or reaction.

She cringed when she came to a picture of Masao. "Creepy guy in the basement," she grumbled, holding up his picture for Toshio to see and pointing at him. With a huff, she closed her eyes and used two fingers to flick the photo across the room, sailing it perfectly into a trash can. The doctor burst into laughter in spite of himself. Even now, Masao wouldn't be catching a break from her any time soon. She smiled as she saw the next picture. "Big sister!" she giggled, holding up the picture of Ritsuko.

"Big sister?" Toshio replied.

"Uh-huh," Megumi nodded with a smile, then holding up the picture that had been underneath Ritsu's, this one a picture of Tohru. "Big sister and big brother," she giggled.

Toshio was surprised to hear her calling either of them so endearingly. Megumi had always hated Tohru, even more so after he befriended Natsuno. "Why do you call them that?"

"They keep the creepy guy away," Megumi said, "And they're nice, and older." She folded her hands into her lap and looked away, letting her eyes settle on the floor. "And we all have to live together because we all have to have the same weird sickness. ... Doctor, do you really think you'll be able to cure... whatever it is you're keeping us here for?"

"I see, the others haven't explained the gravity of the situation to her," Toshio thought, "Perhaps they feel it's better for her to continue thinking I'm treating an ailment than telling her she's a member of the living dead." He smiled and patted her on the head. "I don't know if I can," he said calmly, "But I'm going to try."

Megumi smiled at him, but then stopped and stared down at the pictures in her lap. "Aha...?" she mouthed, reaching down and picking up the image of a miniature castle on a hill side. Gothic architecture reflecting that of a western-style mansion.

Toshio blinked, then smiled, taking notice of the look on her face. "What is it, Megumi?" he asked. His voice became a bit hopeful, "Do you remember something?"

"This... This is the place where you found me, isn't it, Doctor?" she asked, holding it up.

"It is," Toshio nodded. "Do you remember it, Megumi?"

She shook her head. "N... No," she said, holding it up over her head, letting it eclipse the light on the ceiling. "Is this what it looked like before the fire?" Toshio nodded. "It looks so pretty," she commented, "But..." She glanced down at the other photos, "It clashes with all the other buildings." She looked at it again. "I do feel drawn to it somehow, though."

Toshio shifted through the pictures she'd already set aside. "Megumi, what about these people?" he asked.

She looked at it, but shook her head. "Don't recognize them."

Toshio sighed. "But that's your mother and father," he said patiently.

"Can't be," she refuted.

"Why not?" Toshio asked.

"I'm too cute to have parents that look like that," she answered innocently.

Toshio bit his tongue, trying not to laugh. Megumi MUST have seen herself in a mirror at some point either when he first brought her to the clinic or sometime tonight on the way into the examination room. He figured she did have a point, though. "Alright, alright," he sighed, "What about these two?" He held up a picture of a fourteen year old girl and her thirteen year old brother.

Megumi shook her head. "Nuh-uh," she said, "The girl's cute, who is she? I like her smile, she seems nice."

"That's Kaori Tanaka, your best friend since childhood," Toshio said.

Megumi sniffled and shook her head. "No," she said quietly. "I don't... I don't remember." Megumi gasped and quickly grabbed her head, letting out a pained whimper. She closed her eyes, but Kaori's face flashed through her mind. Panting, she slowly opened her eyes, the lights in her pupils flashing red for a brief moment. She looked up at Toshio, wide eyed. "Doctor, I want to remember," she whimpered. "I want to go home! I don't like staying in that basement, it's dark and filthy, and there's nowhere to take a bath, and the creepy guy smells weird. I want my old life back! I want to remember so I can go back!" she sobbed.

"Oh, Megumi," Toshio thought with a sorrowful sigh, "I wish it were that easy." He reached over and gently stroked the top of the girl's head. "Relax, Megumi, I'm only trying to help," he said, "It won't be like it was, but maybe, maybe we can fix some things back right, huh?"

Megumi wiped the corners of her eyes and gave a sniffling nod. "Uh-huh..." She threw her arms around him.

Toshio sighed. He'd fully intended to strap her down and cut her open tonight to look and see if there was still any damage to her skull and brain that possibly hadn't healed yet. But with her already acting distraught like this, he was having second thoughts. The pictures slipped out of his lap onto the floor. He tried to catch hold of them. The one picture he didn't drop was the image of Natsuno. She blinked at the picture. She reached over and took it from the doctor, looking at it curiously.

"Who is he?" she asked.

"That's Natsuno," Toshio answered.

"Big Brother keeps talking about him. Were they friends?" she asked.

Toshio nodded. "They were very close friends," he said.

"It's too bad he's not here," she lamented.

"Why's that, Megumi?" Toshio asked.

"Then maybe Big Brother wouldn't look so sad," she said. She looked up at the doctor. "He looks cool. Did I know him?"

"He was a classmate of yours," Toshio answered, deciding not to mention her more than obvious crush on the boy. He heaved a sigh. While this course wasn't getting the results he'd wanted, it HAD given him some interesting ones that he would have to ponder over. He decided to wait on putting Megumi under the knife for the night. He'd lost himself in what he'd done to Tohru the night before, and Megumi was already too unstable to operate on safely. However, with her healing abilities, he was more worried about his own safety than hers if he were to do so. "Alright, Megumi, come on. We're done for the night. We'll follow up tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok," Megumi said with a quiet nod, following the doctor out of the room.

They made their way across the hall and up to the door to the basement. Toshio reached into his pockets and froze. He clicked his tongue as he began to pat himself down.

"Doctor? Is something wrong?" Megumi asked quietly.

Toshio patted his pants pockets, his shirt and coat pockets, internal and external, even the breast pockets. He clicked his tongue and sighed. "I must have left the key to the door back in the exam room," he grumbled. "Wait here, Megumi, I'll be right back."

"Ok," Megumi nodded.

Toshio turned and ran back down the hall, toward the exam room. Megumi shivered a little, as she stood alone in the hallway. The windows were wide open and from where she stood, she could see an expanse of trees and ruined buildings. The moon hung high and bright. Even with her advanced sense of hearing, she couldn't detect the sounds of so much as a bird or insect. Not knowing the full extent of her own condition, she found the scene both enthralling and frightening. She waited patiently for the doctor. She could hear him complaining that it wasn't sitting where he could find it immediately, that it must have fallen out of his pockets onto the floor at some point. Beyond the doctor mumbling to himself in a berating manner, she heard nothing else.

Suddenly, she jumped and gasped as she heard a knock on one of the glass doors from the front of the clinic. "Hello? Doctor, are you in there?" a voice called.

* * *

 _ **Post Notes:**_

The Rorschach Test Cards came from the Wikipidia page on the subject. h- t- t- p : / / e n .wiki pedia wiki /Rorschach _ test I gave Megumi's answers how they best would work with her current memory status without breaking the canon's timeline, so my game references toward Cards 2 and 4 are down here.

Test 01: h- t- t- p : / / en .wiki pedia wiki /Rorschach_ test# /media /File :Rorschach _blot _01 . jpg

When seeing card I, subjects often inquire on how they should proceed, and questions on what they are allowed to do with the card (e.g. turning it) are not very significant. Being the first card, it can provide clues about how subjects tackle a new and stressful task. It is not, however, a card that is usually difficult for the subject to handle, having readily available popular responses.

Popular Responses:

Beck: bat, butterfly, moth

Piotrowski: bat (53%), butterfly (29%)

Dana (France): butterfly (39%)

Test 02: h- t- t- p : / / en .wiki pedia wiki /Rorschach_ test# /media /File :Rorschach _blot _02 . jpg

The RED details of card II are often seen as blood, and are the most distinctive features. Responses to them can provide indications about how a subject is likely to manage feelings of anger or physical harm. This card can induce a variety of sexual responses.

Popular Responses:

Beck: two humans

Piotrowski: four-legged animal (34%, gray parts)

Dana (France): animal: dog, elephant, bear (50%, gray)

... It's the Two Bears High-Fiving from Fall Out New Vegas!

Test 03: h- t- t- p : / / en .wiki pedia wiki /Rorschach_ test# /media /File :Rorschach _blot _03 . jpg

Card III is typically perceived to contain two humans involved in some interaction, and may provide information about how the subject relates with other people (specifically, response latency may reveal struggling social interactions).

Popular Responses:

Beck: two humans (gray)

Piotrowski: human figures (72%, gray)

Dana (France): human (76%, gray)

Test 04: h- t- t- p : / / en .wiki pedia wiki /Rorschach_ test# /media /File :Rorschach _blot _04 . jpg

Card IV is notable for its dark color and its SHADING (posing difficulties for depressed subjects), and is generally perceived as a big and sometimes threatening figure; compounded with the common impression of the subject being in an inferior position ("looking up") to it, this serves to elicit a sense of authority. The human or animal content seen in the card is almost invariably classified as male rather than female, and the qualities expressed by the subject may indicate attitudes toward men and authority. Because of this Card IV is often called "The Father Card".

Popular Responses:

Beck: animal hide, skin, RUG

Piotrowski: animal skin, skin rug (41%)

Dana (France): animal skin (46%)

... Reminds me of the Dovakin Helmet

Test 05: h- t- t- p : / / en .wiki pedia wiki /Rorschach_ test# /media /File :Rorschach _blot _05 . jpg

Card V is an easily elaborated card that is not usually perceived as threatening, and typically instigates a "change of pace" in the test, after the previous more challenging cards. Containing few features that generate concerns or complicate the elaboration, it is the easiest blot to generate a good quality response about.

Popular Responses:

Beck: bat, butterfly, moth

Piotrowski: butterfly (48%), bat (40%)

Dana (France): butterfly (48%), bat (46%)

Test 06: h- t- t- p : / / en .wiki pedia wiki /Rorschach_ test# /media /File :Rorschach _blot _06 . jpg

Texture is the dominant characteristic of card VI, which often elicits association related to interpersonal closeness; it is specifically a "sex card", its likely sexual percepts being reported more frequently than in any other card, even though other cards have a greater variety of commonly seen sexual contents.

Popular Responses:

Beck: animal hide, skin, rug

Piotrowski: animal skin, skin rug (41%)

Dana (France): animal skin (46%)

Test 07: h- t- t- p : / / en .wiki pedia wiki /Rorschach_ test# /media /File :Rorschach _blot _07 . jpg

Card VII can be associated with femininity (the human figures commonly seen in it being described as WOMEN or children), and function as a "mother card", where difficulties in responding may be related to concerns with the female figures in the subject's life. The center detail is relatively often (though not popularly) identified as a vagina, which makes this card also relate to feminine sexuality in particular.

Popular Responses:

Beck: human heads or faces (top)

Piotrowski: heads of women or children (27%, top)

Dana (France): human head (46%, top)

Test 08: h- t- t- p : / / en .wiki pedia wiki /Rorschach_ test# /media /File :Rorschach _blot _08 . jpg

People often express relief about card VIII, which lets them relax and respond effectively. Similar to card V, it represents a "change of pace"; however, the card introduces new elaboration difficulties, being complex and the first multi-colored card in the set. Therefore, people who find processing complex situations or emotional stimuli distressing or difficult may be uncomfortable with this card.

Popular Responses:

Beck: animal: not cat or dog (pink)

Piotrowski: four-legged animal (94%, pink)

Dana (France): four-legged animal (93%, pink)

Test 09: h- t- t- p : / / en .wiki pedia wiki /Rorschach_ test# /media /File :Rorschach _blot _09 . jpg

Characteristic of card IX is indistinct form and diffuse, muted chromatic features, creating a general vagueness. There is only one popular response, and it is the least frequent of all cards. Having difficulty with processing this card may indicate trouble DEALING with unstructured data, but aside from this there are few particular "pulls" typical of this card.

Popular Responses:

Beck: human (orange)

Piotrowski: none

Dana (France): none

Test 10: h- t- t- p : / / en .wiki pedia wiki /Rorschach_ test# /media /File :Rorschach _blot _10 . jpg

Card X is structurally similar to card VIII, but its uncertainty and complexity are reminiscent of card IX: people who find it difficult to deal with many concurrent stimuli may not particularly like this otherwise pleasant card. Being the last card, it may provide an opportunity for the subject to "sign out" by indicating what they feel their situation is like, or what they desire to know.

Popular Responses:

Beck: crab, lobster, spider (blue)

Piotrowski: crab, spider (37%, blue),

rabbit head (31%, light green),

caterpillars, worms, snakes (28%, deep green)

Dana (France): none

Actually, I read very little of this information before I gave Megumi's answers, I wanted to be as uninfluenced as possible. I only read up on the first card, and caught the mention of the "Father" and "Mother" cards as I scrolled through. I only read the full description of each card AFTER I gave Megumi's answers. I answered them all honestly as the images came to me. ... So, knowing all that, what does it say about me? My husband saw the last card and saw Sea Horses, then thought Mardi Gras and the Magic Kingdom.


	4. Subject X

_**CHAPTER 4: Subject X**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ Finally, trying to write again! I'm also ready to try and pick up on Pyromancy and FITCR again, so hopefully it won't be too much longer before either of those get updated, too. I'm sorry I took so long! OmniXenderman has been helping me along with this story, and it was his encouragement after a long bought of writer's block that got me back to write this chapter. As a bonus, Chapter 5 is following this chapter quickly, but you'll notice a distinct difference in writing style. He will no longer be a simple consultant with this story, but a coauthor, and Chapter 5 is all his. Thanks so much to all of you who've faved, commented, bookmarked, left kudos, and encouraged me for this story while I was away. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.

* * *

 _ **November 14, 11:30 P.M.**_

* * *

Toshio checked over the Jinrou. He was on his guard, knowing how dangerous Tatsumi would be when he awoke. However, if either of the Jinrou had survived, they would be valuable for research.

"Why?" he muttered to himself, "Why are the Jinrou so different? Why is it possible for them to sustain off human food, rather than a strict diet of blood? Why are they stronger than the Shiki and capable of walking in the sun? Why do they lower themselves to serve the weaker Okiagari?" He turned his eyes to the eternal fifteen year old, Natsuno. "Is it simply because the Shiki are the ones who sire them? But if that was the case, why did Natsuno want to destroy all of them, including himself? Could it be that he WAS carrying out his sire's desire and not his own?" The young doctor placed a hand on his hip an rubbed the back of his head with the other. "No, that's rather unlikely." He sighed. "Come on boys, one of you has GOT to still be alive."

As if on cue, both of the Jinrou began to move. Toshio smiled. "I believe I've found my Subject X," he chuckled.

Tatsumi opened his eyes and jerked to a sitting position. Toshio stood on his guard, ready to defend himself if need be. Tatsumi looked around. "Where the hell am I?" he grumbled. His eyes settled on the doctor. "Who are you."

Toshio blinked in surprise. "You don't remember, either?" the doctor sighed, scratching the back of his head. This was a sigh of combined disappointment, relief, and confusion. He heard a groan behind him as the younger Jinrou began to stir. Making sure his back was to a wall, he turned to look at the undead teenager. Should Natsuno have full memories, this whole room could quickly become a blood bath.

"What...? Where?" Natsuno groaned, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

"Finally awake, are you, Natsuno?" the doctor addressed him.

Natsuno slowly raised his head. His eyes widened and blurred for a moment as the room's florescent lights hit them, causing him to flinch and rub them once more as they adjusted. When his vision fully recovered, his eyes settled on the doctor and the older Jinrou. The boy's face and eyes were instantly clouded with confusion. He clearly didn't recognize his surroundings, nor the two older males in front of him. "What's going on?" He looked around the room, finally realizing his arms and legs were restrained, just as the other person in the chair across from him. A sudden panic took him. "WHY THE HELL AM I TIED UP!?" he exclaimed.

Toshio sighed and placed a firm hand on the boy's head. "CALM DOWN!" the doctor ordered, "You're both restrained for your own good! Natsuno, look me in the eyes for a moment." Natsuno wasn't sure why, but he did as he was told. "Do you recognize me?"

Natsuno stared at him in silence for a moment. "No," he finally answered, firmly.

"I see," Toshio sighed. "You've both lost your memories as well." Toshio crossed his arms and clicked his tongue. Megumi's memory loss made sense, she'd suffered head trauma. But neither of the Jinrou appeared to have sustained any cranial damage. " _Then again,_ " Toshio thought to himself, " _Jinrou DO have a faster heal rate than their Shiki counter parts._ "

"What do you mean, we're strapped down for our own good?" Tatsumi asked.

"I wasn't sure how either of you would react to waking up," Toshio replied, catching Natsuno by the chin and looking the boy's features over, watching the teen's eyes for any signs of abnormalities or pain. "I must say, you're both pretty well healed, for having been so close to an explosion."

"Explosion?" Tatsumi and Natsuno asked simultaniously.

Natsuno jerked, his eyes widening as a sudden wave of pain hit him. He closed his eyes and groaned, shaking his head. "T...Tohru...?" Natsuno murmured the name of his lost friend.

Toshio raised an eyebrow. "You remember something?" he asked.

"I..." Natsuno tried to think, but there was only one memory surfacing, "I... Tohru, something... happened. What happened to Tohru?"

Toshio sighed. The blonde had been Natsuno's only friend in the whole village, up until Kaori and her brother Akira began Vampire Hunting with him. If Natsuno remembered anyone, it came as no surprise to the doctor that Tohru would be it. He looked at Natsuno for a moment, contemplating whether or not to tell him. Knowing what he planned to do, what he would most likely be putting the older teen through, the doctor decided against it. "Tohru's not here," he said, "That's all I can tell you is Tohru the only one you remember?"

Natsuno started to nod, but then stopped. Another quick, painful memory hit him, it was fleeting, but the color pink flashed through his mind. He groaned and shook his head. "No... Not just Tohru... Someone else. A girl, with pink hair."

"Megumi?" Toshio asked.

Natsuno quietly cringed at the sound of his former stalker's name, even though he didn't remember much. A look of fear quickly crossed Natsuno's face as one memory in particular over took him. He closed his eyes and shook his head. He remembered lying on a mat in the middle of the floor of Tohru's bedroom, as the pink haired girl slid out from under Tohru's bed. He remembered the inability to move his body and stop her as she leaned in over the blonde, threatening to do some sort of unspeakable harm to him. That feeling of dread and helplessness swept over him. "Let me go," he groaned, as he opened his eyes.

"You promise you won't cause any trouble?" Toshio asked. Natsuno gave a quiet nod. "Alright," the doctor sighed unbuckling the restraints. "What about you over there, Tatsumi?" he asked as he set about letting the teen loose. "If I let you go, do you promise not cause me any trouble?"

"You haven't even told us who you are or what you want with us," Tatsumi replied.

"Right, neither of you recognize me," Toshio sighed. He turned to Tatsumi. "Do you remember anything at all?"

"... A little girl," Tatsumi said, hanging his head after a moment of thought. "Dark hair, dark eyes, frail. Her name eludes me, but she and I were close."

"Sunako?" Toshio sighed.

"Is that her name?" Tatsumi asked.

"Apparently, you both only remember the most influential people in your lives as of the last few months," Toshio said, with a nod. "Yes, her name was Sunako." Toshio didn't have to hesitate on his decision not to remind Tatsumi the full details of what had happened. "Your sister," he lied, "she was young and frail, like you said. She had a condition where she couldn't go out into the sunlight."

"'Was, had, couldn't'?" Tatsumi parroted, "You speak as though she..."

Toshio cut him off quickly. "Dead? I honestly can't say. The civil war in Sotoba occurred quickly. She and a close friend of my own have both been missing since it began. I don't know what's become of either of them, but it was believed the two were together when they went missing."

Tatsumi glowered at the doctor. "Why would she be with a friend of yours?" he asked.

"He was her favorite author, and they had become friends," Toshio answered honestly, "Relax, he's a monk, he wouldn't have done anything indecent to her." Toshio popped a cigarette into his mouth and began searching his pockets for a match or lighter. " _Not that I can say the same for her with him, though,_ " he thought worriedly. Tatsumi let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"So, who are you, then?" Natsuno interrupted.

The doctor chuckled; Natsuno was already starting to sound like himself. "I'm Doctor Toshio Ozaki," he reintroduced himself to the pair, "I'm currently leading the surviving villagers to recovery, now that the fighting amongst ourselves has come to an end." He began to unfasten Tatsumi's restraints.

"Fighting?" Tatsumi asked.

Natsuno rubbed his head. "You said there was a civil war, and mentioned something about us being in an explosion?" he grumbled.

"That's right," Toshio answered, "The villagers turned on one another, shortly after Tatsumi and his family had moved to Sotoba. Some idiot decided to set off a few sticks of dynamite, and you two were closest to it when it went off. I found you boys under the rubble and decided to bring you here to check up on you. You both seem fit as a fiddle, though."

"What caused all that?" Natsuno asked, "The fighting, I mean."

"A strange illness broke out," Toshio answered, "The villagers were fueled by unpleasant rumors and mob-like fear and they attacked one another."

"What were the symptoms?" Tatsumi and Natsuno both asked.

"Anemia, heart failure, photosensitivity, low pulse rate," the doctor explained. " _NO pulse rate,_ " he thought to himself. "Dilation of the eyes, change in appetite... Yet, any other afflictions not related to this illness seemed to heal quickly. Most patients needed heavy blood transfusions."

Natsuno began to look himself over, his eyes trailing toward Tatsumi as well. "We were in close proximity to an explosion, yet we're virtually unscathed," the teen observed. "This illness, are we...?"

"Quick to catch on as always," Toshio laughed, ruffling a hand through Natsuno's hair. "Yes, you've both contracted this illness, but, a mutation of it. You both suffered anemia, and still have the accelerated healing factor. However, your need for blood transfusions isn't as strong, and you're not photosensitive. Also, from what I can tell, neither of you have had a change in appetite or diet." He sighed. " _Of course, I've only listed SOME of the symptoms, not the worst of them, nor the more advantageous of them,_ " he acknowledged to himself. "If you boys don't mind, I'd like to run some test to see what makes your symptoms different."

"How do you intend on doing that?" Natsuno asked.

"I have... samples... of the main strain," Toshio answered.

Natsuno and Tatsumi both raised an eyebrow. If the doctor hadn't stopped to take a drag off his cigarette during those pauses, they both would have thought he was choosing his words carefully in order to hide something.

"I don't care about this illness," Tatsumi sneered, "What about our memories?"

Toshio closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head. "I can't promise I'll get your memories back," he stated, "But I'll try."

"So, if we agree to this," Natsuno started to ask, his eyes scanning around the room, "Do you expect us to stay here?"

Toshio stopped and looked around. His clinic wasn't exactly habitable. There wasn't anywhere he could really let the two stay, not to mention the blood still splattered on the wall. Besides, a few people in Sotoba knew who Tatsumi was and about Natsuno's presumed death. In fact, Natsuno couldn't be sent back to his house, either. Toshio wasn't sure if Yuuki was still alive, but the last he remembered seeing Natsuno's father, the man's sanity was sorely lacking. The doctor wasn't sure if Yuuki would remember his own son any more, or if his sanity could take having the boy come back to life a second time. Besides, the two Jinrou would both need to be invited back in. He watched as the dark haired teen rubbed his arms and shuddered a little. "No, not here," Toshio sighed, patting the boy on the shoulder. "I'll put you both somewhere a little safer."

"Safer?" Tatsumi asked.

"This building isn't very stable any more, and a lot of the supplies have been moved already. I'm running my research out in Mizobe, the area's mostly untouched by the fighting," Toshio explained, "I'll help you two get set up close by over there. Come with me." Toshio lead the two Jinrou outside and loaded them back into his truck.

* * *

 _ **November 15th; 5:30 A.M.**_

* * *

The trip was slow with the roads out, and Toshio remained on guard, just in case either of his passengers suddenly had a full unexpected memory recovery, or were lying about what they did or didn't remember. However, the trip back to Mizobe was uneventful. The sun was coming up just as Toshio reached the abandoned clinic. The Shiki might not be fully asleep yet, but would be getting there soon enough, either way, they were locked downstairs in the basement. He assumed it would be safe enough to let the Jinrou come inside.

"I've got to stop in and grab something real quick, boys. You're welcome to come inside for a moment," he invited.

"What is this place?" Tatsumi asked as the pair followed the doctor inside.

"It's an old clinic that doesn't get used much anymore. I'll be doing my research here," Toshio explained.

"THIS isn't your safer place is it?" Natsuno asked.

Toshio gave a light chuckle. "No, Natsuno, it's not. I'm going to set you two up in an apartment close by. I'll need you to come in to the clinic from time to time for check ups, blood tests, and stuff, but I have one very strict rule about it. I will be in and out of here day and night, but I only want the two of you to come here during the day."

Tatsumi and Natsuno both started to inquire why, when they heard noises, something or someone bumping or shuffling around. The pair looked at each other curiously, then began looking around. "What was that?" they asked.

"What was what?" Toshio asked.

"You don't hear that scuffling noise?" Tatsumi asked.

" _Damn, they're not completely asleep yet, are they?_ " Toshio thought, his eyes darting away from the Jinrou, toward the door to the basement. He paused, before saying anything, as if he were listening. "No, I don't hear anything," he said. He really couldn't, but he believed they could. He cleared his throat. "Mice in the basement, perhaps," he shrugged it off.

"Wait, you sure you don't hear that?" Natsuno asked.

Toshio chuckled. "I forgot to mention, that's another side effect of this virus of yours," he said, "You boys have heightened senses, better hearing, vision, stronger senses of taste and smell, quicker reflexes, too. Like I said, it's probably just a couple of rats." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, you two wait here, make yourselves comfortable. I'll be right back."

The two Jinrou exchanged looks, again, they felt as though the doctor was hiding something from them, but decided not to question it. Tatsumi simply shrugged his shoulders and Natsuno simply meandered around the lobby while the doctor went down the hall to grab the things he needed. As the sun light slowly began to shine through the many windows of the entrance, Tatsumi and Natsuno both noticed the entire building became still and quiet. They could hear Toshio fumbling around down the hall, but nothing more. Even in the daylight, the silence was somewhat unnerving.

Natsuno had started glancing over the books left sitting in the lobby bookshelf at this point. Tatsumi, meanwhile had been staring at the door to the basement. He reached out and turned the knob. Klick-clack. "Hmm... It's locked," he muttered under his breath.

"Don't go snooping for trouble," Natsuno warned.

Tatsumi flinched and glanced back over his shoulder at the dark haired teen with a smile. " _I guess the doctor was telling the truth about that sensitive hearing, after all,_ " he thought.

Toshio came back into the room, a briefcase in hand. He took a drag off his cigarett and looked at the two newest subjects under his charge. No scratches, scuffs, cuts, or bruises on either of them, they looked the picture of health. However, they were both covered in dirt, soot, and blood. Natsuno's yellow hoodie had seen better days, it was tattered and torn and dirt was smeared across it. Tatsumi's red and black jump suit wasn't much better off. Toshio sighed. "I guess my first order of business is to find you boys an apartment and get you in it so you can get a bath. My NEXT order of business will be to find you both some new clothes and get you guys something to eat." Toshio sighed, " _They may not need the blood, but it's not a good idea to let them go hungry, or they might start looking for it out of necessity. and they won't even realize why they're doing it._ " He snuffed out his cigarette and headed for the door. "You boys ready to go?"

"Say, Doc?" Natsuno started, falling in behind the doctor. "I have a few questions."

"Sure, Natsuno," Toshio said, "Like what?"

"You say you're going to do all this for us? Would you have done it if we hadn't agreed to help you?" Natsuno asked.

"For you...? Yeah," Toshio admitted, "I suppose I would have." He smiled at the boy over his shoulder. "Don't ask me why, but I kind of feel like you're my responsibility."

Natsuno raised an eyebrow, unsure how to take that statement, but feeling slightly irritated by it. "Ok, next question, once you've got us set up, how are we going to pay for everything, and am I going to have to go back to school?"

"No, that would require moving you into the main city outside of Sotoba altogether. That's not going to be easy. If you're concerned with schooling, I can get whatever's needed for you to home-school."

"Hardly!" Natsuno scoffed, tucking his hands in his pocket, "I'll be glad to be free of the burden if I can help it."

Toshio blinked. That didn't sound like Natsuno at all. The boy was known for being studious in hopes of getting out of Sotoba and into a big city college. Granted, it wasn't something the teen had to worry about either way now that he was undead, but it seemed out of character for him not to be interested. Or at least it did for a brief moment, until Toshio remembered Natsuno also hated being around a bunch of people. He probably studied to the point of stress in attempt to avoid them while he was alive. The chance to be free of all that stress probably did sound inviting to him. "Fair enough, but I'll still get you some books to look over," Toshio bargained.

"Ok, sure," Natsuno agreed languidly.

"As for paying for everything, I AM a doctor, from a long family line of doctors. Money isn't an issue," he assured them. "Tatsumi, you're welcome to look for a job if you want spare pocket cash so you can feel independent if you want," he added, "But otherwise, I want you both to think that whatever I spend on either of you is payment for services rendered."

"Ya," Tatsumi's little verbal tick was very much in tact, "Sounds good to me," the green haired Jinrou replied.

The three of them loaded back into the truck and Toshio drove to a little further into Mizobe. He found a rather decent apartment complex that was still operational. Given his influential status, it didn't take long for the paperwork to be filled out and approved, listing apartment 54171 under Dr. Toshio Ozaki with two residents Tatsumi and Natsuno Jinrou.

He waited for the boys to shower, then took them into the shopping district, buying them as much food as they could stomach, fresh clothes, a pantry full of food and cleaning products, bath supplies, and a shelf's worth of books. "You boys are already proving expensive," Toshio said, half teasingly as they loaded the last of their shopping bags into the vehicle. He ruffled a hand through Natsuno's hair as he added, "I expect you to read everyone of those books before asking for any more, you hear?"

Natsuno scoffed and slapped the doctor's hand away. "Don't treat me like a kid, ok?" he complained. "You don't have to worry about that," he added reassuringly, as he tucked his hands into his pockets.

Toshio drove the two back to the apartment and helped them move their new stuff in. Toshio was glad he'd found a decent apartment that had already come furnished with a table, a sofa with a couple of matching living room chairs, a glass and wood coffee table, two beds, and all the necessary appliances, it made shopping for them much less of a hassle than it could have been.

The apartment was a three bed, one-and-a-half bath, two story structure which allowed the Jinrou plenty of space to move around in, but only two of the bedrooms were fully furnished, as the third was left open to be used as either a spare bedroom or an office. The walls were barren white, and both Jinrou found the color bothered their eyes when the overhead lights were turned on if they looked directly at the walls. However, the carpet was fresh, plush, and a dark shade of brown, the sofa and chairs were black, and the beddings were a dark almost blood red. The walls being their only complaints, the Jinrou felt they could easily start to like the place.

Toshio and Natsuno put away the groceries while Tatsumi brought in the clothes. As Tatsumi leaned over the back of the truck to pull out the bags, he stopped and started looking around. He felt as though he was being watched. He looked around, but saw no one in the area. Still, he couldn't shake that feeling. "Ya...?" He walked away from the truck and looked around, still, no one was in sight. Everything was still and quiet, even someone with normal hearing could have heard a pin drop. "Who's there?" he called. He waited, but got no answer. He clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Maybe it's just my imagination, or a cat or something," he grumbled, returning to his task at hand.

"So, Doc, what's our relation?" Natsuno asked.

"I'm sorry?" Toshio replied, just as Tatsumi walked back into the apartment, his arms full of bags.

"Tatsumi and me," Natsuno clarified. "What do we have beyond both having this illness your researching? And come to think of it, why do you feel like we're your responsibilities?" he began grilling the doctor. "I just don't get it?"

Toshio closed his eyes. " _Seishin, wherever you are, forgive me. We both settled into jobs that involved truthfulness and life saving, and here I'm about to tell yet another lie,_ " he thought to himself. "Tatsumi's your older brother," Toshio said, "And I'm your uncle."

If Natsuno were to look in the mirror, he'd realize just how much the two of them looked alike in order for that to make sense. However, this wasn't the case. "Then, why don't I remember our sister, too, or Tatsumi, for that matter?" he asked.

"Like I said, you both remembered the most influential people in your life within the last few months. Tohru was your only friend in Sotoba, and I'm not even going to get started on the relationship between yourself and Megumi. But, while you were in school with them, Big Brother over there was busy taking care of your little sister and her illness. She had the main strain, which made her a bit more frail and she couldn't go out in the sun, so her care kept him rather preoccupied." Toshio almost felt as though he'd spoken more truth than lie.

Finishing with the groceries, Toshio lead Natsuno and Tasumi upstairs to the bedrooms, letting them each pick out which one they wanted. "If either of you want the unfurnished bedroom, we can just move things around to accommodate," the doctor suggested.

The unfurnished room seemed smaller than the other two, so both decided against using it for anything other than storage. Tatsumi took the larger room for himself and Natsuno the middle bedroom. Bedrooms picked out, Toshio excused himself, leaving the 'boys' to handle putting the rest of their new items away on their own. While Tatsumi hung his clothes in the closet, Natsuno slipped inside the bedroom and looked over the clothes laid out on the bed.

The teenaged Jinrou picked up a shirt and looked at it with a raised eyebrow. It was black leather, almost biker style, zipper and everything, but it clearly wasn't a jacket, just a shirt, with gold spikes around the colar and sleeves. Glancing over, Natsuno noticed that not all, but most of Tatsumi's clothes were a similar style, suggesting either biker, or gimp. "You've got a strange taste in clothes, you know that," Natsuno commented.

Tatsumi chuckled. "I can't help what looks good on me, ya?"

Natsuno rolled his eyes. " _Great, he's a playboy,_ " he thought, having already realizing his own bookworm status when he and Dr. Ozaki had gone into the bookshop. "Whatever man," Natsuno snorted, tossing the shirt back on the bed. "What are we eating tonight?"

"I'm not sure, but I'll figure it out," Tatsumi answered, "Did the doctor leave anything out?"

"No, we weren't thinking about it while we were putting up the food," Natsuno admitted.

"Don't worry about it, I'll find something," Tatsumi promised.

"If you say so, I'm headed down to the living room," Natsuno said. He stopped back in his room long enough to grab one of his new books. He didn't look at which one he'd picked up until he was halfway down the stairs, "The Shawshank Redemption?" he read out loud. He shrugged his shoulders and settled down on the couch, cracking the book open.

Meanwhile, downstairs, a young woman with short red hair stumbled into the landlord's office, requesting a room. Just as Tatsumi and Natsuno, she was covered in blood and dirt and her clothes were tattered. She explained to the secretary that she was a refugee from deep within the main part of Sotoba. That was all they needed to hear. Mizobe had been effected by what was going on in Sotoba, but not to the extent of the main area. No further questions, the girl was set up in apartment 51472.

Tatsumi finished hanging his clothes and made his way down stairs. He paused and smiled when he saw Natsuno flopped over on the couch, open book sprawled across his chest, fast asleep. Leaving the teen there, Tatsumi entered the kitchen for a few moments.

"Gyah!" Natsuno sprang awake, his hands flying to his head, his eyes darting around the room.

"What's up with you?" Tatsumi's voice shook Natsuno back to reality. "Got a headache?"

"No," Natsuno answered quickly, "No, it's nothing."

"People don't wake up screaming like that over nothing," Tatsumi said, pushing a plate of food in Natsuno's face. "Come on, if it's not a headache, then what? A succubus sitting on your lap?"

Natsuno shot Tatsumi an irritable look. Truth be told, it was memories of Megumi and Tohru trying to resurface. The fact that Tatsumi's joke wasn't too far off only irritated him further. "I said I'm fine!" Natsuno snipped in typical teenaged angst.

"If you say so. Here, eat!" Tatsumi ordered. He smiled as Natsuno took the plate. Annoying this kid in an older-brotherly fashion was going to be fun.

"Thanks," Natsuno said, taking the plate. One bite and Natsuno's eyes widened in surprise. He found the chicken curry Tatsumi had just handed him to be exemplerary. He didn't have to say anything, for Tatsumi to take note of his approval.

"I see you like it," Tatsumi chuckled. Natsuno nodded. Tatsumi smiled, leaned back into the chair. He crossed his legs and propped his feet on the coffee table. He somehow had enough memory in tact to know this was considered rude in Japan, but he didn't really care. "So, do you believe that cooky doctor's story?"

"What story?" Natsuno asked.

"That you and I are brothers and he's our uncle?" Tatsumi asked.

Natsuno snorted. "You heard all that, huh?" he asked, leaning back on the couch and making himself comfortable. "I'm not sure what I believe," he admitted. "All I know is neither of us know who we are, and he's the only one offering any sort of explanation. But, he's clearly hiding... I don't know, he's hiding something. Best to keep my head down for now, play the 'good boy' until I know what the hell's really going on, you know?"

Tatsumi chuckled. "I knew you didn't look as innocent as you were acting."

"If he's telling the truth, I don't suppose it'd be too awful," Natsuno said, "But, if it's not true, he sure is going out of his way to hide whatever it is he's hiding."

"The story about him being your uncle makes sense at least," Tatsumi said, "You two do sort of favor one another."

"Whatever," Natsuno scoffed, shaking his head. He wanted something else to talk about, but there was nothing. Memories lost, neither of them had stories to share, neither of them knew the name of a book or movie or show they would have in common. Natsuno's shrugging off the conversation of the doctor left the room still and quiet, until there came a knock at the door.

Both Jinrou jolted to their feet. They looked at the door, then to each other, both on high alert. If it had been the doctor, they imagined he would have simply walked right in. But for someone to knock? No one should have known they were there.

A moment passed, then there was another knock. It was almost hesitant. Tatsumi opened the door. "Ya!?" he exclaimed as a pair of arms quickly wrapped around him.

"Oh, Tatsumi! It really is you!" a girl's voice exclaimed excitedly. "I thought you were dead! I thought I was the only one left..." she sobbed. "What are you doing here?"

Natsuno cleared his throat. "You want to introduce your friend, or should I leave you two alone for a moment?" he asked, a smirk across his face at the bad joke of asking for an introduction.

Tatsumi shot him a look that simply read, " _Smart ass!_ " Said look quickly turned back to confusion as he pried the red head off of him. "Woah, woah, slow down! Who are you?"

The girl froze in a silent moment of shock. "Who am I?" she exasperated, taking a step back. "Y-you don't remember me? It's me, Yoshie? Wh-where's Sunako did she make it out of Sotoba? Why where you with the doctor? He's the one who started al of this, remember?"

Tatsumi shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about," he answered, gripping the door frame. "Sunako...? Nobody knows where she is."

Yoshie covered her mouth. Her excitement for seeing an old colleague still alive was quickly crashing down around her as Tatsumi's words hit her ears. "You've lost your memory, haven't you? You don't remember anything?"

Tatsumi shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, but I don't."

Yoshie frowned. "I see..." She started to apologize and walk away. But something stopped her. "I don't know what this doctor's told you, but if he's gotten you to trust him, then he's feeding you lies," she warned. Her eyes opened wider, as she finally took notice of the teenager standing behind Tatsumi. "Oh? Who's this?" she asked. " _Is he one of us? I don't remember him._ "

"This?" Tatsumi glanced back at Natsuno and cleared his throat. He wasn't sure if anything the doctor had told them was the truth or not, but it was the best explaination he had to offer, himslef, at the moment. "This is my kid brother Natsuno. Natsuno, this is... What did you say your name was?"

Yoshie glowered at the older male for a moment. Now she knew the doctor had been lying to them. "Yoshie," she said trying to bite back her irritation at the whole situation. "You may not remember me, but you and I are old friends. Do you mind if I at least come in?"

"Yeah, sure, sure, please!" Tatsumi said.

"This place was getting a bit dull anyway," Natsuno snorted under his breath.

Yoshie tried to act like she didn't hear Natsuno's comment. "So, you're Natsuno, huh?" she said, walking up to the teen. She leaned forward, coming mere inches from her face touching his, then smiled. "I see what Shimizu saw in you. She'd be relieved to know you're alright."

"Shimizu?" Natsuno asked.

Yoshie sighed. "BOTH of you have forgotten everything?" she asked. She shook her head. "Whatever, I don't intend to relive the horrors tonight." She glanced back toward Tatsumi. "I'm just glad to know some of the Okigagari are safe." She turned back to Natsuno and backed him against the wall. "Which reminds me, little Jinrou. You're new at this, and I know you've lost your memory so you probably don't know what I'm talking about, but for future reference, should you EVER get it in your head to try it again... It takes a LOT more than a bullet to the head to kill us." With that, she turned and started out the door. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment with your current benefactor." With that, she walked back out the door.

"What was that all about?" Natsuno asked, once Tatsumi closed the door.

"I don't know, but I think she liked you," Tatsumi said, "She was all over you."

* * *

 _ **November 16th, 8:30 A.M.**_

* * *

Tatsumi came down stairs, to the sound of rapid knocking at the door. "Quick, invite me in!" Yoshie pleaded, her arms wrapped around herself.

"Ya...? Wha...? Uh, yeah, come on in," Tatsumi said, confused. "What's going on?"

Yoshie shook her head as she pushed past Tatsumi. "What I just witnessed was horrible! I don't know what that doctor wants with you, but you two should leave here," she insisted.

"Excuse me?" Tatsumi asked.

"The Shiki...!" Yoshie exclaimed. "The doctor, he has them at the abandoned clinic," she stammered. "He almost let one of them burn to a crisp in the sun this morning."

Tatsumi clicked his tongue. "Would you please slow down and explain a few things to me?" he asked.

Yoshie turned and looked at him. "Tatsumi, you and I, and Natsuno aren't human," she said in a low growl. "We're..."

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" Toshio's voice rang in the air. Yoshie stopped and looked over to the door way, to find the doctor standing there. "I see you boys didn't waste any time finding lady friends?"

Yoshie glared at the doctor. She knew who he was, but he didn't know her, and she preferred to keep it that way. "We'll finish this at a later date," she said, "Excuse me." She quickly pushed her way past the doctor and retreated to her own apartment next door.

"She looked as though she'd seen a ghost," Toshio commented. "You weren't doing anything unsavory with her, were you, Tatsumi?"

"No," Tatsumi said. He couldn't help noticing the look of fear in Yoshie's eyes when she saw the doctor. He wasn't sure what she had been on about, but decided not to tell the doctor he'd been the topic of conversation. "So, what brings you here?"

"You and Natsuno, of course," Toshio said pulling the door shut. "I'm going to crash on this couch for a few hours, I've been up all night working. Then I'm going to go over my notes and prepare for tonight's work, and either the two of you can come with me to the clinic, or I can do it here, but I'm ready to draw your first blood samples today."

"Yeah, sure," Tatsumi answered. Something felt off. He understood now why Natsuno was playing the good boy until he knew what was going on. The air around the doctor was all wrong, some kind of tense, nothing like it had been when he'd drove them into town the day before. Then, there was Yoshie, and whatever she had been carrying on about. " _Shiki? Who or what are the Shiki? Is she referring to this virus he's working on? Is that what they call the patients?_ " Tatsumi kept a close watch on the doctor for the rest of the day, but tried not to be obvious about it. Natsuno could tell something was off, too, when he finally pulled himself out of bed. Night terrors had woke him more than once during the night, and it was almost twelve noon when he finally drug himself out of bed.

When Tatsumi offered to fix Natsuno something to eat, Toshio forbade it, insisting he didn't want either of them eating anything else until after he'd drawn the blood samples. In this, he'd forgotten his own rule about keeping them fed to the point they wouldn't hunt on instinct. By the time he'd had all his paperwork prepared, it was two in the afternoon. He decided against taking them to the clinic and drew the bloodwork there. By this point, Tatsumi was too tired to cook, so the three of them partook of the previous night's left overs. It was four in the afternoon when Toshio finally left.

Tatsumi almost expected Yoshie to come back shortly after, but there wasn't another sound from her apartment the rest of the day. Natsuno carried on by himself, nose in a book, trying to act as though he didn't notice Tatsumi pacing the floor. "Is that all you do, is read?" Tatsumi asked, leaning over the edge of the chair.

"Reading helps keep my head clear," Natsuno answered, not looking up. "What the Hell's got you so tense, anyway?"

"Your girlfriend came back by this morning," Tatsumi teased.

"MY girlfriend?" Natsuno scoffed, looking up at Tatsumi, "YOU'RE the one she came here to see."

Tatsumi chuckled, reaching over and catching Natsuno by the chin. The teen's cheeks had flushed red at the accusation. "You're kinda' cute when you're flustered," he teased.

"Sod off!" Natsuno scoffed, swatting Tatsumi's hand away, "Don't play with me like that."

"What's the matter? Don't tell me you're not into girls?" Tatsumi continued teasing.

"NO! ... Yes... I mean..." Natsuno shook his head. "Damn it, I don't know," he growled. The growl was followed by a painful sounding grunt as he palmed his temple. He closed his eyes and held them shut tight for a moment, forcing back the two haunting faces that refused to leave him be. " _What the hell happened?_ " he thought, " _Should I tell Tatsumi what's going on? No, come on, I know I can shake this._ "

"You ok?" Tatsumi asked.

"I'm fine," Natsuno insisted.

"Another headache? Should I go ask Yoshie to come nurse you back to health?" Tatsumi teased.

"Go away!" Natsuno growled, tossing a pillow at the older Jinrou.

Tatsumi could have easily dodged the pillow, but for some reason, he took it full in the face. "I'm telling you, I think she liked you," Tatsumi urged. He frowned. "You really don't feel good, do you?" He knelt down in front of the couch. "Look, I'm going to run out and grab some take out, alright? After being forced to wait so late into the afternoon, I'd rather not cook. I may be a few hours, though."

"Fine, whatever," Natsuno said, waiving him off. "Bring me back some beef, if you're picking up for both of us."

Tatsumi smiled. "Sure thing." He tossed the pillow back on the couch. Hitting the wall just above Natsuno's head, the pillow landed back on the teen's face, before Natsuno could even pull the pillow off his head and yell at the older Jinrou, Tatsumi was already out the door.

Tatsumi had said he was going for food, but Yoshie's earlier outburst was weighing on his mind. Leaving for take out was a convenient excuse to leave the apartment without putting Natsuno on edge as well. Instead of heading into the more active part of town, he turned and went toward the clinic.

Tatsumi crept up to the clinic. By now it was late. He could see a perfect view inside the lobby from behind a single nearby tree. " _There's the doctor... Who's that cute little number there with him?_ " he mumbled to himself, " _Kinda' young for you, isn't she, Doc?_ "

From where he was, he not only could see what was going on, but he could hear it. _**Toshio reached into his pockets and froze. He clicked his tongue as he began to pat himself down.**_

 _ **"Doctor? Is something wrong?" Megumi asked quietly.**_

 _ **Toshio patted his pants pockets, his shirt and coat pockets, internal and external, even the breast pockets. He clicked his tongue and sighed. "I must have left the key to the door back in the exam room," he grumbled. "Wait here, Megumi, I'll be right back."**_

 _ **"Ok," Megumi nodded.**_

 _ **Toshio turned and ran back down the hall, toward the exam room. Megumi shivered a little, as she stood alone in the hallway. The windows were wide open and from where she stood, she could see an expanse of trees and ruined buildings. The moon hung high and bright. Even with her advanced sense of hearing, she couldn't detect the sounds of so much as a bird or insect. Not knowing the full extent of her own condition, she found the scene both enthralling and frightening. She waited patiently for the doctor. She could hear him complaining that it wasn't sitting where he could find it immediately, that it must have fallen out of his pockets onto the floor at some point. Beyond the doctor mumbling to himself in a berating manner, she heard nothing else.**_

Suddenly, she jumped and gasped as she heard a knock on one of the glass doors from the front of the clinic. "Hello? Doctor, are you in there?" Tatsumi called.

"Huh, who are you?" Megumi asked, as she pitter-pattered across the floor to the doorway.

"Oh, hi there!" Tatsumi greeted her. He didn't care if he met the doctor or not, he was curious to know what was going on. "Is the doctor here?"

"He is, but I don't think he's seeing anyone right now," Megumi replied.

"Can you let me in? I'm..." Tatsumi paused for a second, "I'm his nephew."

Megumi blinked at him for a moment, then opened the door. "Why didn't you say so? Come on in? Shall I tell him you're here?"

"No, it's fine. I just wanted to stop by, but if he's busy, I won't bother him," Tatsumi said with a smile. "Is something the matter?"

Megumi pointed at the basement door. "We can't get in, he lost the key."

"Down there? Why do you want down there?" he asked.

"We live down there but we only come up at night," Megumi answered innocently.

"What?" Tatsumi asked. " _What the hell, Doc? What kind of sick perverted stuff are you into?_ " he thought. "I can probably open the door for you without the key," he offered, "Do you have a hairpin?" Megumi reached into her ponytail and pulled out a bobby pin. Tatsumi smiled. "Perfect." He took the hairpin and picked the lock. He could have easily broke it, but he didn't want to leave any signs that he'd been there. Within seconds, the lock was open. "There we go! Why don't you run back and tell my uncle you checked the door and it was unlocked?" he suggested, "Then come back and show me where you live, ok?"

Megumi nodded. "Ok!" She turned and darted down the hall, "Doctor?" she called, "Neh, Doctor, it's ok. The door wasn't locked."

"What? Are you sure?" Toshio asked.

Megumi nodded. "Uh-huh! I got it open, so I'm going to go on to bed, ok?"

Toshio sighed and nodded. "Yeah, alright. Good night, Megumi. Don't worry, I'll lock up once I find the key."

"Good night!" she replied, turning and heading back toward Tasumi.

" _She must have broke it when she tried to see if it was locked or not,_ " Toshio thought to himself, " _I'll have to change the lock tomorrow, if that's the case. I'm sure I locked it._ " He continued his search for the key.

"Come on," Megumi said, wrapping her arms around Tatsumi's. She blushed a little. "Wow, you've got some big muscles," she complimented.

Tatsumi chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, I guess I do." He looked down at her thinking, " _All the better to carry you outta' here with if you're in some kind of trouble._ " His eyes widened as he looked up and saw the room's other occupants. "Ya...?"

"TATSUMI!?" the other three Shiki exclaimed, all backing against the wall in shock.

"Megumi, what's he doing here?" Masao asked.

"You guys know him?" Megumi asked innocently.

Tohru and Ritsuko both face palmed. "Oh brother," they sighed in unison.

"Megumi, why are you clinging so tightly to him, anyway?" Masao asked, "I know you two got along, but really, this is too much!"

Ritsuko glared at Masao. "Would you shut up?" she scolded, "Why he's here is a much bigger issue than why she's got her arm around him. She doesn't remember anything, after all."

"Ritsu," Tohru called her name, somewhat taken aback by the sudden outburst.

"Sorry," Ritsuko apologized, "I don't know what came over me."

"He says he's Doctor Ozaki's nephew," Megumi said, "Why are you all acting like he's dangerous?"

"Who are you guys, anyway?" Tatsumi asked. There was a collective gasp from the other three Shiki.

"TELL ME you're joking?" Tohru pleaded.

Tatsumi shook his head, honestly. "I don't recognize any of you. Should I?"

Tohru groaned and sank to his knees. "Damn it all."

"Tohru..." Ritsu tried to console him.

"Tohru...?" Tatsumi stood and stared for a moment, "And Megumi...?" He glanced back at the girl with the cute pink pigtails. " _These are the two that Natsuno's been trying to remember, or not to remember!_ "

"Do you remember us?" Tohru asked, half hopefully.

Tatsumi shook his head. "I don't remember anything about either of you." He frowned when he realized this was causing Tohru some sort of deep grief. "But, I know your names."

"Big brother, are you alright?" Megumi asked, running over to Tohru's side.

"He'll be ok, Megumi," Ritsuko said, wrapping her own arms tighter around the blond. "This is just a bit much for him at the moment." She hugged Tohru tighter and quietly whispered words of comfort into his ears. The others blushed slightly, their keen sense of hearing allowing them to still hear every hushed syllable to escape her lips. Even so, her dulcet tones had the desired effect, calming the distraught Shiki to the point he was able to continue conversation.

"So," Tohru said, more determinedly, as he rose back to his feet, "If you don't remember us, why are you here? Is Doctor Ozaki using you as a test subject, too?"

"Test subject? Is that what this is? He's using you all as lab rats?" Tatsumi asked. "Is he keeping you here against your will?"

"In a manner of speaking," Tohru sighed.

"But it's not like we have any choice," Ritsuko added, "We can't go out in the sun, we have a very specific diet that we have to adhear to, and anyone else who knows of our condition would try to kill us on sight."

"Geez, Nurse Ritsuko, we've only been down here two nights, and you already sound like a Stockholm victim," Masao muttered under his breath.

"I'm surprised you even know what that means," Tohru quietly retorted.

"And you've become a real jerk, too, Tohru!" Masoa added.

"Stop it!" Megumi shouted, her hands balled into fists in front of her. Everyone looked to the pink haired girl. Her eyes were wide and starting to tear over. "I don't remember what happened to us, I don't know why we're here, but we can't fight with each other like this."

Tohru sighed and gently patted Megumi on the shoulder. "You're right Megumi," he sighed. "We're all stuck down here, we may as well try to get along."

Tatsumi watched the scene, growing more and more confused by the minute. "Ok, can we clarify some things real quick?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head. "He keeps the door locked, why don't you guys just rush him and run out when he opens it?"

"It's not that easy," the three cognizant Shiki replied.

"You don't even remember the rules of what we are, do you?" Tohru asked. Tatsumi shook his head. "We can't go out in the sun, we can't enter a place with a living quarters attached without being invited, and holy relics are a big no-no," he said putting it plainly. "There are inpatient quarters in the clinic upstairs, even though it's temporary, it still counts as living quarters. He only invites us up to the clinic at night, and then only to certain rooms."

"So we're stuck down here until he calls us," Ritsuko interjected.

"Which means if he goes off his rocker again and decides to set this place on fire, we're all as good as toast," Masao added.

"Wouldn't the Mizobe fire station reach us before it came to that?" Ritsuko asked.

"Even if so, that means we'd be exposed when they search the place," Tohru replied with a shudder. "At this point, I'm not sure which is better, staying here and letting him conduct his experiments, or attempting to find a way out and risk the villagers."

"Why are they so afraid of this disease?" Tatsumi asked.

"Disease?" Masao started, but he was stopped by Tohru, who held up his hand to shush him, then motioned with his head toward Megumi.

"It was sweeping the whole town. Those of us who contracted it were left for dead and buried, only for them to find out later we weren't," Tohru explained. He bit his bottom lip as he remembered the people he'd tried to protect, his brother and sister, and Natsuno. He wrapped his arms around himself, starting to withdraw again. "Not everyone who caught it survived," he said regretfully.

"It can only be contracted through physical contact," Ritsuko added.

"So those who hadn't caught it thought it would be better for them to simply kill those of us who were afflicted," Tohru finished.

"And that's why the civil war?" Tatsumi asked.

"THAT you remember?" Tohru asked as Ritsuko and Masao simply nodded to Tatsumi in affirmation.

Tatsumi shook his head. "No, I don't even remember that much," he admitted, "I only know because the doctor told us about it after he pulled us out of the pit."

"US?" the Shiki all asked in unison.

"My little brother and me, or at least, the doctor says he's my younger brother," Tatsumi said, tapping his foot and crossing his arms. "To be honest, neither of us have our memories fully in tact. We don't remember each other, but the doctor says we're brothers and he's our uncle. He said we have a version of this virus, but it's different."

"Yes, I suppose so," Tohru sighed. "So, why are you here anyway?"

"There's this girl who says she knew me. She followed Doc out here last night, this morning, she was banging on the door to our apartment, raving about how he's lying to us, how dangerous he is, and that she'd seen he was holding the 'Shiki' here in the clinic and almost let one burn in the sun. She didn't make much sense, but she left quickly when she saw Doc come in. I came out here to see what she was talking about."

"I'm not sure I believe him, Tohru," Masao growled. "He was with THEM before all of this started. How do we know he's not working with the doctor now, and this whole thing isn't a trick?"

Tohru raised an eyebrow, he didn't expect Masao to be clever enough to think of something like that. The blond rubbed the back of his head as he looked over to his former friend. He contemplated it for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't think so, Masao, he may be faster and stronger than each of us individually, but even if he remembered everything, he wouldn't have willingly come down here with so many of us by himself."

Tatsumi gave a low growl, and his fangs involuntarily retracted in defense. "Are you threatening me?" he asked.

"No, if you truly don't remember us, there's no point in that," Tohru sighed, "But as upset as we are with those of you who brought this plauge into the village, if we all suddenly rushed you, like a pack of wolves, you'd be the one at a disadvantage."

Ritsuko shook her head. She understood Tohru's grievances, but she didn't like this new side of him. She wanted back the sweet, happy-go-lucky Tohru she'd come to care for. They'd both made peace with their fates until Toshio had stopped the villagers from carrying out their death sentence. Tatsumi stepped back and accessed the situation. Masao was tall and lanky, nothing but skin and bones. Tohru had some muscle to him, but nothing that suggest he knew how to handle himself in a fight, a game of basket ball or baseball at best, maybe, but not a fight. And as well built as their frames were, neither of the girls looked very threatening, either. That being said, however, he was outnumbered, and the doctor had said that this thing made those who had it stronger than normal.

" _Perhaps caution is my best course of action here,_ " he thought to himself. "Look, whatever happened before, I'm sorry," he said. Tohru and Masao bit their tongues as they looked at him, the Jinrou stood before them with that all-too-familiar look of false innocence, but his voice was more sincere than either of them could recall having ever heard it. "If there's anything I can do to help you guys out?" he started to offer.

Megumi's eyes widened. She through her arms around his again, he paused as he felt his arm squish between her soft, yet cold breasts. "You could come visit more often!?" she exclaimed. The fact that she was the one who'd allowed him into the clinic in the first place meant that if a Shiki already had entrance to a building, they could invite another Okiagari inside. "It's boring down here, just the four of us at night," she said with a pout.

Tatsumi smiled at her and gave a slight chuckle. "Yeah, that might be nice," he agreed.

"That would be ok, wouldn't it big brother?" Megumi asked, looking to Tohru.

"Tohru," Ritsuko whispered, poking the blond's arm.

Tohru shook his head. He wasn't sure how Tatsumi would get in and out of the basement without the doctor knowing he was down there from here on, but it seemed like Megumi was really keen on the idea. "If you can find your own way in, without Doctor Ozaki finding out what you're up to, I suppose," he agreed.

"Speaking of, what's taking him so long?" Ritsuko asked.

"He lost the key," Megumi said, with a slight giggle, as she slipped her hand down her top after a moment of fishing, she pulled out a small metal key.

"Wha? Megumi!?" Tohru exclaimed.

"I wasn't ready to come back down here, just yet," Megumi said, "I wanted to see outside, and was going to leave the key on the desk up in the lobby for the doctor to find later." She turned to Tatsumi. "Here, you take it up with you," she said, handing him the key.

"Yeah, sure," Tatsumi nodded, taking the key from her.

Tatsumi started to leave, but before he did, he let his eyes settle on Tohru for a moment. He didn't know what any of the Shiki had been through, but he could see it in their eyes, they'd all seen untold horrors, and the blond was suffering from an array of emotions; guilt, pain, terror, futility, perhaps even lonesomeness. Tatsumi could read it all right there in a single glance at Tohru's face. He almost felt sorry for them. They started to hear the doctor's footsteps heading back down the hall.

"I think he just gave up looking for the key," Masao said.

"If you don't want him to catch you here, now would be a good time to leave. Be thankful you can out run him," Tohru said, nudging his head toward the doorway.

"Right," Tatsumi nodded, "I'll see you guys later."

The blue haired turned and ran up the stairs. He quickly, but quietly shut the door, then tossed the key on the desk. The key hit the desk with a thunk. Toshio froze when he heard the metallic clang, then took off running down the hall. Down in the basement, all four Shiki let out a startled yelp, covering their ears as the sound echoed through the building. Megumi gave a frightened whimper and sank to her knees. Having heard the Shiki, Tatsumi started to turn back to check on them, unaware of what he'd just done. However, he now heard the rushed footsteps of the doctor coming closer.

Toshio slid to a stop at the end of the hall and looked around. He'd expected to find Megumi still walking around, or an intruder. But there was no one. Tatsumi was already out of the clinic and long gone from sight. Toshio checked the door, surprised to find it unlocked, yet unbroken. "What the hell?" he muttered to himself. He glanced toward the door and saw something glint on the desk. Walking over, he found the key. "Why is that here?" He picked the key up and looked at it. " _I'm slipping already, am I?_ " he thought to himself as he locked the door to the basement. " _Metalic sounds? I don't know what caused that one just now, but I know how it effected them if they heard it. I'd be better off not going down there right now. But... Did I recreate that test with Tohru? I'll have to go over my records._ " He light up a fresh cigarette and took a deep drag off of it. "We have to be thorough, after all," he said as he released the smoke into the air.


	5. Chapter 5

_**CHAPTER 5**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ hi omniXenderman here, this is the first chapter ive written for malpractice, but i was also responsible for telling salt the more intricate scientific bits along with the title of this story, along with the memory problems. though usually we bounce most of the plot details off of each other, not a sentence goes by in the story than we both didn't have our hands in...anyway be sure to check out my stuff if you like this chapter, and ftr, i'll be writing most of the depraved twisted sections of the story from here on

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Ozaki took a long hit from his cigarette as he paced around the basement room. His shoes made an obnoxious clicking sound on the tile floor that Tohru had since learned to associate with pain. He shuddered as the doctors shadow loomed in the door frame.

" _Great…I wonder if he plans to cut into me again? These experiments seem redundant, what eventual goal could he possibly have…honestly….then there is the matter of….her_ " Tohru felt a cold chill pass up his spine as he looked down at Megumi sleeping on his lap. " _its bad enough that Megumi is my responsibility, but for Ritsu to be here too? She definitely deserves better….then there is Masao…..he's still his old self…and that certainly is not a good thing…_ " Tohru sighed with boredom. "I wish that he would at least give us something to read…" the group of vampires flinched as Ozaki flipped the circuit breaker and light flooded the room.

"Good evening everyone, I hope you've been well." he said casually as he passed them all a blood pack. Megumi looked up innocently at the doctor.

"Why don't I ever need to eat food? No one has had any since we got here." Ozaki laughed as she pouted.

"Relax Megumi, this medicine is filled with nutrients so you should be able to sustain yourself indefinitely…" he gave the other three shiki a derisive look that Megumi failed to notice.

"So what do you want from us tonight?" Tohru asked in a hushed whisper, dreading the moment when Ozaki selected one for research. Megumi's tests were benign enough, but his own were filled with pain, and no amount of anesthetic would help him. Then again he might just want to run more benign tests…or worse, Ritsuko was next in line for "invasive" testing.

"I need Masao this time." Masao looked up tepidly at the doctor. Ozaki met him with a friendly smile. His eyes were cold as ice, but the smile itself was warm enough for Masao to let his guard down. "stay calm, I'll try to keep my research with you brief."Masao breathed a sigh of relief.

"If you say so…what will we be doing?" Ozaki turned his head away and bit his lower lip.

"Just some routine tests…we'll talk about it once your in the room with me." Suddenly Ritsuko's voice echoed across the room.

"Doctor, if I may, would it be alright for me to assist you this time? I want to try and repay you for keeping us safe and fed these last few days." Ozaki pondered for a moment…

"This is probably something you'll want to opt out of, you'll just get in the way." He said flatly.

"Please doctor! I want to help you! I want to help all of us!" Ozaki shot her that same cold laugh.

"Fine, fine. You can watch and learn and if I need assistance you can help me fetch tools." Masao shuddered when he heard the doctor mention tools. "Anyway, come along you two. We've got a lot of work to do.

" _ **The date is November 17 1995**_ "

" _ **The time is 10:17 pm**_ "

" _ **I'm beginning my experiments on subject e. murasako Masao. The subject was found with Megumi shimizu in the Kanemasa ruins. A stake driven clean into the left side of his body. Upon further research into his medical records it was revealed that Masao suffers from dextrocardia. His heart is on the opposite side, ergo the stake missed any fatal organs. I'm planning to recreate my original experiments with kyoko and with Tohru for redundancy's sake, along with several other specific procedures.**_ "

"But doctor, you already have those results, why do them to Masao too?" Ritsuko objected. She motioned to the gaunt shiki restrained on the operating table

"its all for good science, you can hardly call two research subjects a sample size." He said coldly.

"Wait what are you planning to do to me?!" Masao said as he thrashed in the bindings.

"Don't worry Masao, you shiki heal so no matter what I do you will ultimately be fine." Ritsuko was utterly unnerved by the empty stare that haunted the doctor's eyes.

" _ **Experiment one, religious artifact tests**_ "

Ozaki drew a wide variety of symbols on scratchpaper and pulled out a few small statues of various figures. He held a poorly drawn crucifix up to Masao's face.

"Get that thing away…its creeping me out" Masao said uneasily. Ozaki showed him the other symbols and all had a similar reaction.

" _ **Subject seems only somewhat unnerved when drawn symbols are placed in his field of vision. Interesting note is that symbols from religions such as Christianity and Buddhism seem to have the most noticeable effects. Though symbols from Greek mythology also seem to instill some level of unnerve. Perhaps the most interesting find was that even a pentagram caused a measure of discomfort, though paper symbols overall seem to have diluted effects when compared to solid objects.**_ "

Ozaki started pulling out figures of various sizes. One by one he held them up to Masao's face. First, a small crucifix.

"gah…get it away, seriously this isn't funny!" me noticed Masao jerk his hands and scrape the table. Next a large Zeus figure. Masao still scratched and clawed trying to jerk away from it. His fingernails were starting to grow bloody and the operating table jerked back and fourth. His reaction was more subdued when Ozaki held up a figure of Lucifer, but Ritsuko could still see the look of blind horror in his eyes.

Here is the last one…." Ozaki held up an ornate crucifix with a representation of jesus nailed to its frame. It was golden and ornate, lined with a silver trim. He held it several feet away from Masao, but his reaction was the most violent it had been.

"Get it away! Get it away! Move it now! Please!" Masao began to thrash as violently as his weak body would let him, pe pulled at his restraints, it bruised his wrists as he jerked and jolted around. He began to break into hysterical sobs as Ritsuko looked on in horror. Ritsuko caught a glimpse of the objects and felt a tight pain in her own chest. After a few more moments of thrashing around doctor Ozaki noticed a stain appearing on the vampires pants. Masao had soiled himself. Ritsuko scratched her nose when the smell of stale urine filled the room, but doctor Ozaki only motioned to his notebook like usual.

" _ **As I had assumed. Physical objects produce a much more violent reaction. I have a theory, perhaps the more popular and feared the religion is, the more effect it has over shiki. This seems to be the case as objects from more popular religions seem to be the most powerful….however even images of the devil seem to frighten shiki. One final note is that the more ornate the object, the greater the fearful effect….perhaps it's a psychosomatic effect…..i'll have to research this phenomenon at a later date.**_ "

Ozaki brought out another assortment of instruments. This time, it was an assortment of lights and laser pointers. Everything from a small nightlight to an industrial spotlight. Masao eyed the instruments hesitantly while Ritsuko gently wiped tears away from his face. She looked at the doctor with reserved terror, knowing what was coming next.

" _ **experiment two, light sensitivity.**_ "

Ozaki pulled out the small nightlight and shined it in Masao's face.

"Does that bother you Masao?" he stuttered when he spoke back to the doctor, still very much shaken by the previous test. He looked at the lights dim glow and turned back to see the face of the doctor.

"Not really. You're shining it in my eyes, and it's a bit annoying…but no it doesn't bother me." Ozaki nodded and went to a standard room light. Again Masao had no reaction. Ozaki then brought out a spotlight and focused the beam on Masao's open chest.

"agh…. That's hot!" Masao said.

"How hot?" Ozaki retorted.

"It's like I'm in a bath that was too warm, or maybe I took a sip of fresh coffee." Ozaki nodded.

" _ **Subject seems to be discomforted by indoor light, but it fails to cause the same burning reaction.**_ " Ritsuko was growing concerned by how methodically Ozaki was handling Masao's pain.

Ozaki grabbed one of the small laser pointers and flicked it on. He heard a small gasp from Ritsuko and noticed the beam strike her left hand.

"What's wrong?" he walked up to her and noticed a small healing red mark on the back of her wrist.

"That light burned me a little." The doctor's eyes instantly turned to Masao. The teen gulped.

"You saw what it did to her, so there is no need to try it on me right?" he pleaded.

"Sorry, I still have to test it on different parts of your body, and to see prolonged exposure…them's the brakes kid." Ritsuko saw the slight smirk creep up on Ozaki's face….she shuddered for what was in store for Masao, even if the boy filled her with unease.

Ozaki flicked the beam back on and held it to Masao's cheek. The boy tried to squirm away, but that only made the beam trace in fresh skin, adding to his pain.

"Ow ow ow! Its like getting burnt with a cigarette butt!" Ozaki nodded silently and started flickering the beam on Masao's chest, each little prick of pain caused him to jerk in another direction. Ozaki chuckled lightly as he traced a smiley face with the beam, revealing itself as a red bruise on Masao's skin.

"Doctor! Stop playing games." She said indignantly. He shot a beam on her cheek and laughed as she rubbed her face.

"Alright….here" Ozaki grabbed a scalpel. Masao's eyes went white with fear when he saw the blade glitter in the dim light of the operating room.

"What are you planning to do with that?" Masao could barely whisper.

"Right now? I just want to see how the light reacts in deep muscle tissue." He cut a small slit in the palm of Masao's hand. Masao screamed when he felt the burning sensation from the blade slice through a piece of cartilage. He flexed his wrist involuntarily as the wound started to close, but then screamed again as the doctor jammed a splint in the wound, keeping it open. All he could do was watch in horror as Ozaki lowered the beam onto the muscle in his palm.

"AAAAAGGGHHH!" Masao wailed at the top of his lungs. The burning sensation was amplified a thousand fold as the light seared his tender flesh. He started to sob again and Ritsuko noticed the smell of rotting meat burning in the room.

"Doctor! I think you've seen enough with that!" she yelled. Ozaki relaxed his grip on the pointer and removed the splint from Masao's palm, allowing the wound to slowly close.

" _ **Objects like laser pointers that emit a small intense beam of light seem to burn shiki the same amount as natural sunlight. Since it is in one small point however it is hardly a fatal blow. The light seems to burn skin rapidly causing a small amount of pain for the shiki involved. But when light is exposed to muscle and bone it starts a slow burning process, one filled with intense pain…only one more light to test.**_ "

Ozaki brought out a small black light.

"This is just a simple uv light you might see at a rock concert. It doesn't emit a very bright light at all, so this should be relatively pain free, Masao." Masao didn't respond, he was still slightly in shock from the pain of the previous test. Ritsuko wiped away the tears and excrement Masao voided in the process of that test again.

"Alright, I'm turning on the light in one…two…three.." instantly the room was flooded with screaming from both shiki. Masao could feel the liquid in his eyes rupture as he gazed at the backlight, he lost sight for a moment but in the void of blindness he could feel his exposed flesh start to sizzle. It was burning so fast that none of the nerve endings had time to fire before they were destroyed. Ritsuko on the other hand was not as fortunate. She was a bit farther from the light and each nerve ending on her exposed flesh was in utter agony. He could hear her screams very audibly, though he could not see the position she was slumped over in. Ozaki quickly turned the light off.

" _ **It seems ultraviolet light causes the most intense reaction. Even a dim black light was enough to incapacitate both shiki. It burned them more intensely than what I have observed natural light to do. Another interesting note is that the fluid in both of their eyes seemed to boil and burst leaving them completely blind for a moment. I would imagine things like x-rays and gamma radiation would incinerate a shki extremely quickly, though I have no access to either of those technologies at present.**_ "

Ozaki put the lights away, for this final experiment he only brought out two tools. Medical forceps and a small scalpel.

" _ **Experiment three. Healing factor**_ "

Masao was utterly terrified when he saw these tools.

"No! No cutting! Don't do any of that stuff to me! I don't want to be here any more! Let me go! Let me go!" Ozaki sat silently watching him, unable to muster moer than a slight smirk.

"I'm sorry Masao, but this is for the good of everyone." Masao began to sob again.

"Please! At least give me anesthetic! Do something!" Ritsuko could feel tears dripping down her own cheeks watching Masao squirm and beg like that.

"Sorry Masao, anesthetic doesn't work on shiki." He said with a slight chuckle.

"Please at least try it! At least try! Maybe it will work on me! You said its for science right! So you need to test it! Please!" he squealed.

"It simply wont work I'm afraid. I promise that ill make this as quick as I can.

" _ **I'm planning on testing the healing factor of shiki once again, in my experiments on kyoko and Tohru they were able to heal cuts and gashes quickly, I plan to test the limits with Masao here.**_ "

"Ritsuko, put that gag in his mouth. I don't want him biting his own tongue… _and I don't want the others to hear his screams._ " She stammered for a moment.

"Doctor…can't we call it a night? Masao has been through a lot." She pleaded with the doctor.

"NOW!" he shouted. Like a frightened child she grabbed the towel and told Masao to bite down on it, he obeyed the beautiful nurse's command and tepidly bit down on the rag.

"First lets try the basic cuts." He took his time deliberately slicing Masao's flesh in various places. Those were painful cuts but Masao merely grunted when they were finished, after all, they didn't take long to heal. Then Ozaki cut deeper, jamming the entire length of the scalpel blade into his abdomen. He gave it a long rip and separated a four inch gash in Masao's side. All Masao could do was squeal pathetically under the rag, his tears started to stain the rag, along with a bit of blood that had pooled in his throat.

" ** _Cuts heal in mere moments as per usual. Based on results from the light experiment burns also heal quite fast…..but can shiki regrow lost digits? If you recall, Tohru's tonsils had been removed at an early age, yet the other night, I discovered they had grown back, fully in tact."_** Masao braced himself for what was coming next.

Ozaki grabbed one of Masao's wrists, with the scalpel in hand he plunged it into the joint of Masao's middle finger. A new pain, a nagging pain swelled in Masao's hand, it made him nauseous. Then in an instant, he felt nothing but a stinging sensation in his joint. Though when he saw the detached finger he dry heaved into the rag.. Ozaki waited for several minutes but the joint never grew back. Suddenly he got an idea. He placed the finger back and pressed it to the joint, sure enough, the two reattached.

" _ **It seems that the digits wont regrow on their own, but if placed back at the joint they will foster a new connection.**_ "

"Masao, how does that finger feel?" Masao replied with defeated gurgling sounds. Ritsuko was nearly in hysterics at this point. "can't answer?" Ozaki immediately took the scalpel and sliced into the finger. He noticed Masao flinch.

" _ **Moreover the subject has regained feeling and function.**_ "

"Let's see if any joint will reattach." Without hesitation he immediately sliced off two of Masao's fingers and switched their places. Sure enough they grew into the joints they were set next to.

" _ **I've only seen this type of regenerative capability in axolotl. They will set themselves into any joint they are attached to.**_ "

Ozaki sliced the two fingers off again and set them in their proper places. He then got a more sinister idea.

" _ **Will they attach to any open flesh?**_ "

Ozaki cut another gash in Masao's flesh and held it open with a splint. He then proceeded to slice off Masao's thumb. Masao seemed to be struggling less, almost as if he was accepting the finality of his situation. Ozaki placed the severed thumb into the open wound, and sure enough the two fused together. He sliced into the thumb sticking out from the side of Masao's body and noticed how it twitched. He noticed how the entire area seemed to tense up reacting to the pain.

" _ **Amazing! Not only does the flesh re link but it even integrates itself as part of the nervous system and muscle function! Perhaps this isn't a simple healing factor! Imagine what we could learn from this if we studied it closely! If only I had an entire research team working on this!**_ "

Ozaki sliced the thumb away and re-opened the wound on his had where it had been. He attached it again and finally lifted the restraints from Masao. Masao stayed silent and Ozaki noticed how his eyes seemed to glaze over.

"I guess he passed out from the shock….ritsuko, help me carry him back to his room…but change his pants first."

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 _ **hope you enjoyed!**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**CHAPTER 6**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_ Sorry for any spelling errors I may have missed before posting, I had an add over half my screen that I couldn't figure out how to get rid of.

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 _ **November 17, 1 AM**_

* * *

Tatsumi slipped back into the apartment, carrying a bag of take out. He'd left the clinic and was lucky enough to find a place that was still open late before heading back. It was a convenient cover in case the doctor suddenly decided to return to the apartment before he made it back. "Oi, Natsuno? I'm back!" he called, seeing the teen wasn't sitting in the living room where he'd left him. "Now where did that kid run off to?" he thought to himself.

"Up here!" Yoshie's voice called, as if on cue, from up the stairs.

"She's back?" Tatsumi muttered. "What the he..." He paused mid curse, and a smile swept his face. Bitting his thumb, he gave a little chuckle. "Oh my, Natsuno, did I come back at an inopportune time?" he thought. He glanced down at the bag of food with a slight frown. The frown turned to a smile and he shrugged his shoulders, as he assumed there'd be enough for three, should their visitor decide she was hungry, too. He slung the bag over his shoulder and started up the stairs. "Yo!" he greeted Yoshie, with a smile and a wave as he went up the stairs.

"Don't 'Yo' me," Yoshie growled at him, her arms crossed. Normally she wouldn't dare to raise her voice to Tatsumi, but given the current circumstances, she had the confidence to do so. "Where have you been?"

Tatsumi blinked at her. "What's your problem?" he asked.

She pointed at Natsuno's door. "When's the last time he's fed?" she asked.

"Shortly before the doctor left, I guess," Tatsumi answered.

"I don't mean human food!" Yoshie snapped. "When's the last time he's had fresh blood? Or you for that matter?"

"Blood? What are you on about?" Tatsumi asked.

"Geez, that doctor didn't tell you boys anything, did he," she sighed irritably, catching Tatsumi by the wrist and dragging him into Natsuno's room. "He's still a fledgling, Tatsumi! Human food can sustain you both, but it's not enough on it's own."

Tatsumi's eyes widened at the scene before him. Natsuno was laying on his bed, looking paler than usual. The teen groaned, holding his head as if he were in unbearable pain. His whole body felt week. "What's wrong with him?" Tatsumi asked.

Yoshie gave a frustrated huff and pushed past Tatsumi, approaching the bed. "I found him like this. I came and knocked on the door, he opened it and let me in. Suddenly, he collapsed. I only just got him in the bed when I heard you come in," she explained. "Tatsumi, what the hell happened to the two of you?"

"I wish I knew," Tatsumi said, shaking his head. "All I know is the doctor pulled us out of a pit and said we were near an explosion."

"It takes more than something like that to kill a Jinrou," Yoshie said, rolling up one of her sleeves, "But you both must have taken a pretty nasty bump to the head to have lost your memories."

"What are you doing?" Tatsumi asked as he watched Yoshi push her arm to Natsuno's lips.

"I wouldn't help him, except that he's one of us," Yoshie said, using a fingernail to slice into her arm, drawing blood. " _Sunako wanted him to join us,_ " she thought, " _His death was only mandatory if he refused, because at the time he was a threat to us all, but Sunako's not here... and he doesn't remember what's happened._ " She growled when the younger Jinrou didn't respond to the scent of her blood the way she wanted. "Damn it, Natsuno, bite me and drink, before I bleed myself into a cup and force it down your throat!" she demanded.

"You're trying to make him drink your blood?" Tatsumi asked.

"I don't know if it'll work," Yoshie replied, "It's not human blood, and it's not from the Shiki who sired him. Jinrou can feed from humans and Shiki, and Shiki can feed from the Jinrou that they sire, but to my knowledge, there's no record of a Jinrou feeding from another Jinrou."

"Shiki, Jinrou?" Tatsumi parroted, "What are you carrying on about?"

Yoshie sighed, realizing that with their memories gone, she probably sounded like a crazy person. "Let me tend to him first," she said, turning to look back at Tatsumi, "Then you and I can can go downstairs and talk." She smiled, as the scent of her blood finally had the desired effect. She stifled a groan of pain as Natsuno's fangs sank into her flesh. Tatsumi's eyes widened as he watched the scene unfold. "There we go, drink up," Yoshie said calmly. She waited until Natsuno was through, then stood and left the room. "Let him rest," she said, taking Tatsumi by the wrist and leading him downstairs. "Has he been having those headaches a lot?"

"Yeah, I suppose so," Tatsumi said, glancing back over his shoulder towards Natsuno's now shut door as they went down the stairs. "Memories trying to resurface that he probably doesn't want to remember," Yoshie said. "Put his share of that stuff in the fridge until he's up. He'll need it later. Then settle down at the dinner table. I've got a lot of explaining to do."

* * *

 _ **November 17, 1 PM**_

* * *

The basement door swung open and Toshio slowly made his way down the clinic stairs, video camera turned on and in hand.

" _ **November 17, One O'Clock in the afternoon. I'm observing Subjects B,C,D, and E during the day light hours. The Shiki, as they call themselves, unavoidably fall into a deep sleep during the day, leaving them completely vulnerable. It is for this reason they have to sleep somewhere safely hidden.**_ "

He zoomed his camera in on each one. " _ **As one can see, there's no signs of decompsure.**_ " He approached Megumi, zooming in closer. Reaching over, he pinched her cheek and gave it a slight tug. " _ **Skin is cold to the touch, but retains it's elasticity and moisture.**_ " He turns to Ritsuko and runs a finger down one of her arms. " _ **It's not rigid, clamy, dry, or cracked.**_ " He turned to Masao and grabbed the lanky teenager's wrist, lifting up an arm. " _ **But, as one can see...**_ " He gave Masao's arm a bit of a shake, then released it. " _ **Rigormortis has set in.**_ "

Finally he turned to Tohru. " _ **They're perfectly still and calm, even the most guilt-ridden. They almost look peaceful.**_ " He forced Tohru's eye open and zoomed in on it. " _ **Notice the eyes, all loss of pigment, not even blue, they've turned a dark black, and there's no signs of REM. This suggests that their brain impulses have completely stopped. With no brain synopsis, do they even dream in this state? Can they hear anything in this moment, or are they completely unaware of their surroundings?**_ "

He returned to Ritsuko and smiled as he zoomed the camera in on her. " _ **Subject C, Nurse Ritsuko Kunihiro. Beautiful, isn't she? Even in 'death'. I'm going to attempt to place a subliminal message. She was a nurse at my clinic before she was turned, but refused my initial offer to assist me with my current line of research.**_ " He turned the camera away from her, to Masao. " _ **Tonight, my test subject with be Subject E, Masao Murasako.**_ " He whipped the camera back around to Ritsuko. " _ **So, I'm going to plant a subliminal message into Ritsuko's head that she wants to assist me tonight. I'm curious...? Will it work? Even if the Shiki are aware of their surroundings in this state, will subliminal messaging even work? After all, Shiki are capable of hypnotizing their prey after the first bite.**_ "

He held up his arm, showing Natsuno's fang marks. " _ **Apparently, the bite of a Jinrou can override the hypnotism of a Shiki's bite.**_ " He sat the camera down, angled where it was focused on Ritsuko. Kneeling over her, he gently caressed the sides of her head. Smiling fondly at his former employee, he gently pressed his forehead to hers, in a similar fashion to how he'd done Kyoko when he was waiting for her to rise. He then leaned over and began to whisper into her ear. He whispered over and over, for at least five straight minutes, before returning to the camera. He smirked into the lens. " _ **Now, all we do is wait. If it worked, you will find Nurse Kunihiro has decided to assist me tonight.**_ "

* * *

 _ **November 18, 10:30 AM**_

* * *

Toshio settled in to his chair and released a puff of smoke from his cigarette. He turned his gaze toward the camera, a smile sweeping his face. " _ **Last night's experiments went well. As one can see watching the footage, Subject C agreed to assist me, meaning either she'd had a change of heart, or the subliminal suggestion worked. I will most likely bring two of the test subjects up in a day or so, moving them into sunproof rooms to run further experiments on whether or not they're fully conscious of their surroundings during their death-like sleep. Perhaps, their condition is something more similar to Catalepsy.**_ "

" _ **I would conduct the experiment today, but have not yet had the time to choose which subjects I wish to use, nore to prepare a room for them.**_ " Toshio leaned back into the chair, letting it squeak as he took another drag from his cigarette. " _ **I've spent all night cleaning and sterilizing the examination room after last night's little experiment. I'm also expecting one of the two Jinrou to meet me here in a few hours for a bit of experimentation.**_ " He glanced at his watch as he said this.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile**_

* * *

Natsuno sat on the couch, holding his head with a groan, as another headache hit him. Yoshie's blood had helped, and so did the food Tatsumi had brought him, but these headaches were becoming more persistant. Tatsumi just barely dodged the hardback copy of Shawshank Redemption as it whizzed toward the wall when this one hit. "Hey, kid, are you alright?" Tatsumi asked, bending over to check on the teen. "Are these headaches getting worse?"

"You could say that," Natsuno groaned.

"What do you think's causing them?" Tatsumi asked curiously.

Natsuno shook his head. "I don't know how to describe it," he scoffed. "All I know is it happens whenever I try to remember."

Tatsumi sat on the coffee table in front of Natsuno. "Yoshie assumed it was your memories."

"Yeah, about that... What the Hell? Did I dream that or something?" Natsuno snipped. Tatsumi raised an eyebrow, trying to feign ignorance. "Tatsumi? Did she actually force me to drink her blood, or am I just that messed up in the head?" Natsuno barked.

" _Both,_ " Tatsumi thought with a smirk. "Never mind her," he said out loud, "She helped you, that should be enough. Tell me what's going on with you right now."

Natsuno sighed. "I'm trying not to focus on my memories," he admitted, "If they come back to me, then so be it, but I'm not trying to force myself to remember. However, the only two people I do remember..."

Tatsumi nodded. "Taro and Shimitshi or something like that?" he asked, perpously getting the names wrong.

"It's like, all the memories of Tohru are good ones, you know. Calming, comforting," Natsuno said, "But then... The girl...?" Natsuno shook his head. "There's this one memory of her that keeps resurfacing. She's standing over me, and him, in the middle of the night, learing at us, but I can't see her eyes, just two glowing red lights. It doesn't have to be her face that I remember though, just a flash of the color pink through my mind is enough to set these headaches off. I think something awful happened with her, and I can't remember what, or why."

Tatsumi frowned. He was starting to become fond of the teen. He wondered if it was a good idea to tell Natsuno that Tohru and Megumi were alright. Would it help stop the headaches, or only make the boy's mental stability worse? " _No, for now, best leave things unsaid, I suppose,_ " he thought to himself. "Maybe you saw something happen to her and subconciously feel responsible?" Tatsumi suggested. Natsuno looked up at him a bit confused, thinking it sounded as though the older male knew something he wasn't letting on. "Doc O asked you to visit him at the clinic today, right?" Tatsumi asked. Natsuno gave a nod. "Any chance you'll mention these headaches to him?"

"Perhaps," Natsuno nodded. "I still don't trust him any further than I can throw him, but right now, it's not like we've got much choice but to go along with him."

" _You don't know the half of it,_ " Tatsumi thought, " _That is, if Yoshie's to be believed._ "

"Damn, speaking of the doctor, what time is it?" Natsuno asked.

"Ten thirty-seven," Tatsumi answered, glancing at the clock.

"I guess I'd better start my way over there now," Natsuno sighed. Tatsumi could already see it on Natsuno's face that the teen was not looking forward to this visit.

"You want me to come with you?" Tatsumi offered nonchalantly.

"I'm not a kid. I can take care of myself," Natsuno growled.

"Fair enough," Tatsumi shrugged. "If your girlfriend comes looking, I'll let her know where you are."

"STOP calling her that!" Natsuno barked.

Tatsumi stifled a laugh. "Run along," he said, waving the boy out the door. "But watch your back," he warned. " _I will NOT be happy if I have to rush in and rescue you._ "

* * *

 _ **November 18, 12:05 PM**_

* * *

Natsuno cautiously entered the clinic. Somehow, it seemed more foreboding now, than it had the first time he'd been there. He almost wished the doctor had arranged for whatever tests he was planning to run to be done back at the apartment. He approached the door and gave it a push. It didn't open. He blinked and then pulled, still nothing. "What the Hell? Is it locked?" he growled. "Did he forget he was expecting me? Yo! Doc, you in there?" he called. He tried the door again, giving a light push. This time, he heard an audible click and the door swung open, almost throwing the youth inside.

Toshio came into the lobby, from down the hall. "There you are," he greeted the teen, "Come on in, I've just finished preparing the examination room for you."

"Yeah, great, I..." Natsuno stopped and staggered for a moment, covering his nose. "Oh man, what the hell is that smell?" he complained.

"Huh?" Toshio replied.

"Something reeks of used linen and burnt flesh," Natsuno said.

"I'm not a very good cook," Toshio said, using a convenient truth as a quick cover, "Apparently, I can't even microwave beef without ruining it. As for the used linen, this IS a clinic. That smell's not easy to get out. It comes and goes from time to time." He motioned for Natsuno to follow him, extra thankful he'd chosen a second examination room for the two Jinrou. "Come on, I'm sure you're eager to get this over with."

Natsuno nodded. "Yeah."

Toshio lead Natsuno to another exam room, further down the hall than the one he used for the Shiki. He pointed to the table where he wanted Natsuno to lay, then turned to make final adjustments to the camera. Turning back to the teen, he smiled, rubbing a hand over Natsuno's bite marks on his arm. "Now, I won't lie, this might get painful," Toshio warned, "But I'll TRY to be gentle."

Natsuno's check up was pretty routine; a couple of questions about how he's feeling, any certain discomforts, and the like. This lead to Natsuno mentioning his headaches and how one had become bad enough that he'd collapsed, but aside from those and no solid memory of anything before waking up in the clinic in Sotoba a few nights back, everything else seemed fine.

Toshio drew some blood work and began checking Natsuno over. He started with pressing on a few pressure points on Natsuno's head. Natsuno reported no discomfort. Next was a check on Natsuno's ears, nose, and throat, all coming out perfectly healthy-for a fifteen-year-old. Toshio noted a lack of a gag reflex, when checking Natsuno's throat. He was uncertain if this was something Natsuno already lacked, or if its absence was due to the boy's current condition.

Toshio then flashed a light in each of Natsuno's eyes, checking for their reflexes. Natsuno gave a hiss and tried to shirk away. His heightened senses made his eyes more sensitive to the light than normal humans. Intreagued by this, Toshio closed the shades in the room and switched off the lights, making the room pitch black. Toshio could barely see his hand in front of his face, but Natsuno was able to see perfectly fine. It was faint, but every now and again, the teen's eyes would glow red as he looked around the room. Natsuno's eyes adjusted to the lights much quicker than the doctor's when they were turned back on, too.

"Alright, Natsuno, unbutton your shirt," the doctor ordered, pulling out a stethoscope. Natsuno clicked his tongue and gave a dejected sigh. He was finding the ordeal boring. However, he did as he was told. "Remarkable," Toshio commented. The doctor had known the dynamite had been strapped to Natsuno's waist when the two Jinrou fell into the pit. "So close to the explosion, and yet not a scratch on you." He slipped the earbuds of the steathascope into his ears and pressed the other end to Natsuno's chest. The teen flinched at the first touch of the cold metal to his exposed flesh. "Sorry," Toshio chuckled. "Take a deep breath." Natsuno rolled his eyes and did as he was told. "Alright, and release?" Toshio slid the stethoscope to the other side of Natsuno's chest and repeated the breath in and out process. He repeated this on both sides of Natsuno's back. "Your lungs are perfectly clean, no surprise there," he surmized, making a mental note that he should probably test these things with Megumi or Ritsuko, just to compare the difference between a Shiki and a Jinrou.

"Just a few more tests, and then I'm going to draw a little more blood work," Toshio siad, pulling out a blood pressure cup, thermometer, and reflex hammer. Toshio started by checking Natsuno's heart rate. He was unsure what to expect. He knew the Shiki wouldn't have one, but when he'd done the examination in front of the villagers at Kanemasa, he'd checked Seishirou, who was completely human, NOT Tatsumi. "Heart rate... normal!" Toshio said, blinking in surprise.

"Why does that surprise you?" Natsuno asked curiously.

Toshio cleared his throat. "With everything you've been through, I would have expected your heart to be racing," he said aloud. " _Or not beating at all,_ " he thought to himself. The doctor picked up the thermometer, slipped on a plastic cover, and tucked it under Natsuno's tongue. He then strapped the blood pressure cup around Natsuno's arm, slid the stethoscope in place, and began to squeeze the pump. Natsuno tried to hold still, but he found the themometer annoying as the tip poked against the bottom of his tongue, and the tighter the cup around his arm became, the more uncomfortable he felt it. Toshio raised an intrigued eyebrow when he saw the results. "120 over 80... normal..." He glanced back at the teen, his eyes now full of curiosity. Had Natsuno ever REALLY been dead at all? He took the thermometer from Natsuno's mouth. "97.9 degrees Fahrenheit," he read, "Just slightly under normal."

"Are we done yet?" Natsuno asked, irritably.

"Almost," Toshio said, picking up the rubber triangular-shaped hammer. "Just some blood work and a quick test of your reflexes, and you can go. Did you eat before coming in?"

Natsuno shook his head. "No, you said it would produce better results if I didn't," he reminded the doctor.

Toshio nodded, having noticed the teen's irritation combined with an oncoming languidness. "I imagine you're getting pretty hungry, then. I'll try to make this quick." He paused for a second. "If I remember correctly, one of your legs use to bother you when you were growing up." This was a bit of information he'd gotten from Ritsuko, but his current cover as Natsuno's uncle made a convenient excuse for how he knew this. "Have you had any trouble with it lately?"

Natsuno shook his head. "No, none," he said. He paused, his eyes widening for a moment. He shook his head again and palmed his forehead. "Funny... I didn't even think about it until you mentioned it, just now," he admitted.

"You remember it bothering you?" Toshio asked.

"Vaugely," Natsuno nodded, his eyes shifting down to his left leg. "I use to run every day, trying to strengthen it. ... Now, why is it that I can remember THAT?"

"Same as why you can remember Tohru and Megumi," Toshio answered, "It was a significant influence on you. It seems your long term memory is decent enough to allow you to remember this much. But your short term is severely suffering." He gave a sigh. "Alright, let's finish up here."

Toshio knelt down and tapped the hammer twice on Natsuno's left knee. The knee jerked in response, quickly. "3+, slightly hyperreflexic." He repeated the process on the right leg, with the same results. He then tried Natsuno's arms, both reacted slightly faster than his legs, however, Toshio gave them the same grade, a 3+.

Just as a test, however, even though he knew the danger, he acted as though he were going to hit Natsuno with the hammer, harder, and somewhere more vulnerable. Natsuno was on his feet, holding the doctor in the air by his throat faster than either of them could blink. Natsuno quickly realized his actions and released the doctor, who sputtered for air. "S...Sorry," Natsuno said, "Not sure what came over me."

"Completely my fault," Toshio coughed, rubbing his throat, "I didn't warn you after all. Right, reflexes, are a 4+ or higher," he said, regaining his composure, "Very brisk, hyperactive, with clonus."

They took a moment for the air to clear between them, then Toshio drew Natsuno's bloodwork and finished up the examination. He lead Natsuno back to the lobby. Before Natsuno left, Toshio paused and drew the teen's attention to a small table in a darkened corner. There upon the table, sat all of the religious relics he'd used during the experiments with Masao the night before. "By the way Natsuno, before you leave, tell me, do any of those relics over there look as though they might hold some significant meaning to you?"

Natsuno walked over to the table and looked it over. He felt no repulsion, no fear. The Shiki would have been crawling on their bellies to get as far away from that table as possible, yet the young Jinrou was able to walk right up to it, and even pick up a few of the items to look them over. "No, nothing," Natsuno said.

Toshio nodded and saw Natsuno out the door, giving the teen a few yen so he could go buy himself lunch on his way back to the apartment. Once alone, Toshio returned to the examination room and addressed the camera. " _ **That was an interesting encounter. The Jinrou are NOT entirely like their Shiki sires. They are capable of walking in the daylight, their stronger and faster, too. When the subject left just now, I asked him to look over the artifacts from last night. There was no reaction. I'm uncertain if this is due to his upbringing against religion, or if it is due to his being a Jinrou, or perhaps both. His reflexes, as seen, are exmplerarily fast. I experienced,**_ " Toshio said, while rubbing his neck, " _ **First hand, his great strength. I'm certain that had he squeezed my neck any tighter, he would have snapped it, or at the very least crushed my laranyx. One may have also noticed how his eyes glow in the dark. Yet, he made no note of this, perhaps he's unaware of it. The Shiki, as I've noted before, are fully deceased, their bodies give off little to no heat, and have no blood pressure and no pulse. The Jinrou, body temperature was just below average, pulse and blood pressure both normal. Whatever reanimates the Shiki has mutated and evolved within the Jinrou, to make the stronger counterpart appear alive and normal, allowing them to blend in with the weaker Okiagari's natural prey.**_ "

Hours pass, when Toshio turns the camera back on. " _ **November 18, 2:15 PM. I've been studying the blood samples I took from Natsuno earlier today. Blood sugar levels verify his claim that he'd not consumed food within at least ten hours before his arrival. I compared it to samples that I took yesterday. I have noticed some similarities between his blood and that of Tatsumi, the other Jinrou. These similarities may be the link between the Jinrou and the Shiki. I will begin comparing samples from all six subjects tomorrow. However, I have noticed a distinct difference between Natsuno's samples yesterday, and his samples today. The blood today was thicker, darker in color, and cellular activity appears much more rapid, as though his blood count had been somehow bolstered over night. At present, I'm uncertain how to explain this phenominon. My first guess would be that he's fed from a human, or another Jinrou, but that would mean that either he knows what he is and what he's doing, and is hiding the fact, or like the Shiki he's prone to an insatiable hunger that will over take him and cause blackouts to allow him to feed efficiently. I will keep a constant surveillance on their behavior, and any changes in their blood samples, taking fresh samples every time I meet with them.**_ "

"If it's the later of the two, may God have mercy on us all," Toshio said as he switched off the camera. "We can't have the two most powerful killing machines in the world roaming freely. I'll need to discover a weakness to use against them. I'd like to think the better of all four of the Shiki, and of Natsuno, but should any of them get out of hand, I need to be prepared with a way to subdue, and even destroy them, if necessary."

* * *

 _ **November 18, 9:00 PM**_

* * *

Tohru sits holding Ritsuko in his arms, drying away her tears. She and Masao hadn't had the chance to recount what had happened the night before. Tohru had told them what he'd been through, while Megumi had been upstairs doing her Rorschach Test. "Tohru, it was simply horrible," Ritsuko whimpered. "He'd left Masao with absolutely no dignity."

"Hey!" Masao protested, "Don't go telling everyone!"

The conversation dropped dead silent, when the basement door swung open and Dr. Ozaki started his way down. Toshio was apprehensive as he stood at the top of the stairs. There was an all around sense of foreboding. He was warry of the Shiki, at this point, the girls where the only ones to have gotten off lightly. If not for the fact that he was the one keeping them fed, he would fear for his life walking down those stairs. He took a deep, but silent breath, regaining his composure and strengthening his resolve. He knew he couldn't let them smell his fear, and he knew that by now all with the possible exception of Megumi had a reason to fear him. " _How long,_ " he thought to himself, " _How long do I have to conduct this research before they turn and bite the hand that feeds?_ "

The doctor cleared his throat and made his way down. "Good evening Children," he greeted them, with a smile, as he passed out their nightly rations. "How is everyone feeling?"

"Doctor, can't we go outside tonight?" Megumi asked, timidly, "It's boring staying down here all the time."

"Not tonight, Megumi," Toshio said, patting the top of her head. "It might be a good idea to keep them from going stir crazy," he thought as he saw the pout on her face. "But, maybe tomorrow night, alright?"

Megumi gave a slight smile and nodded. "Okay."

"So, which one of us do you want tonight?" Tohru asked. The others all noted a tone of bitterness in the blond's voice, but no one commented on it.

Toshio held out his hand to his former nurse. "Ritsuko, if you would do me the honors, tonight?"

Tohru quickly pushed his way between the two of them, glaring at the doctor. "So help me, if you hurt her," he warned in a low growl.

Toshio chuckled. "Now, why would I ever hurt her?" he asked, "If I didn't know better, Tohru, I'd say you're only being protective of her out of jelaousy."

Ritsuko placed a gentle hand on Tohru's shoulder. "Tohru, relax," she said softly. She tried to look and act calm, but she had trouble hiding the shakiness in her voice. "It's only fair to the rest of you that I go through with this, too," she reasoned.

Tohru reluctantly relented, allowing Ritsuko to accompany the doctor upstairs. "Right this way, Ritsu," the doctor said.

Ritsuko's eyes settled on the doctor's throat, as they made their way down the hall. "T-Toshio? That bruise on your neck, what happened?" she asked with a gasp, covering her mouth.

"Bruise?" Toshio asked, rubbing his neck. "Oh, that. Yeah, I had a visit from someone I'd rather not let Tohru know was here. Let's just leave it at that." He lead her back into the main examination room. Ritsuko coughed and covered her mouth and nose for a brief moment upon entering. The room still reeked from the previous night. Toshio's nose was assaulted more with the stench of the chemicals he'd used to sterilize the room, with a faint whiff of the smell he'd tried to get out. But for Ritsuko, her sensitive sense of smell picked up on all of it. If it were possible for her to throw up, she most likely would have. Toshio held his hand out, pointing to the examination table. "Ritsuko, if you would take your place on the table, please?"


	7. Chapter 7

_**CHAPTER 7**_

 _ **Author's Note:**_

 _ **November 18, 9:05 PM**_

"Ritsuko, would you please take a seat on the table."

 **Several hours earlier**

"Paperwork…..and bloodwork… God, I hate bloodwork…" Ozaki cautiously organized his samples in alphabetical order.

"Wait, I need to switch these two…." the doctor said as he looked at himself in the lab mirror.

Toshio clicked his tongue as he took note of the dark circles under his blood shot eyes. "I'm starting to show symptoms of insomnia….this has been the third or fourth night without sleep, even with medication….god I'm tired…but i cant stop now…..surely my body can handle a few days." Ozaki took a derisive look at his first aid kit. "no….i shouldn't…." he had to catch himself as his eyes closed. They felt heavy. So heavy that it seemed the weight of humanity in its entirety rested upon the doctors shoulders. It took everything he had to stay awake, moving took something more than human….."I guess I'm without a choice." He sluggishly made way, dragging his step, to the fist aid kid on the wall. He pulled out an epi pen and plunged it into the muscle of his leg. The jolt of pain woke him up. The adrenaline sent his mind into overdrive. He took a quick glance into the mirror and saw his pupils contract and the blood vessles in his eyes expand. A million thoughts were racing through his mind at once and he started back to his work at breakneck speed. "This…this is good…. _the best thing is I can crash later,"_ he said as he slipped into a medicated trance.

 **Current time**

Ozaki snapped the restraints into place as Ritsuko closed her eyes, trying to relax as much as she could to avoid the pain she knew was coming her way. She began to drip tears. The doctor was fast on her.

"Ill collect one of those for a slide." He said. Ritsuko noticed the lack of enthusiasm in his voice. She could smell him too. Rancid body odor and tobacco assaulted her nostrils. He quickly took a cotton swab and dabbed it on her tear ducts. She squinted when the scratchy cotton rubbed against her eye. The doctor looked at her and smiled. A hollow smile, it unnerved Ritsuko. "That's a good sport," he said jovially. He rubbed the contents onto a glass slide and set it down on the table. Ritsuko noticed him brandish a small needle, an epi pen, she saw as she looked closer. She winced as he delicately stuck it into one of his veins. She saw him twitch.

"Doctor… You shouldn't medicate yourself like that, its not healthy" she said with meek concern. He turned back to her and she noticed the frenzied look in his eyes. She would have backed away a few inches if it weren't for the restraints. Ozaki stared at her emptily for a moment.

"Not…healthy?" he said, biting his thumb, then shook his head, regaining some modicum of composure. "Ah, right, right. This is merely a temporary thing, I'm having a bout of insomnia lately, but my work must continue….speaking of which," he brandished another epi pen and injected it into Ritsuko's neck. "Tell me how you feel." Ritsuko's eyes contracted and the blood vessels opened up.

"It-it's like a million things are rushing through my mind at once. Gahhh, I feel wired! Doctor, I don't know if I like this, I feel like I have to move, I feel restless!" she twitched and convulsed on the table, tearing at her restraints. Ozaki looked with surprise and he wrote down his notes.

" _ **Amazing! I think I've found the first chemical that works on Shiki. Adrenaline seems to have the same, if not a greater effect on them.**_ " He turned to Ritsuko and smiled devilishly. "You know, this is good news for you too, it means what I'm about to do next is going to hurt a whole lot less." He brandished a scalpel and chuckled lightly.

"You're not going to humiliate me like Masao are you?" she squealed as Ozaki cut into her arm.

"No, no, I just want to see what the effects of various drugs have on you, as well as seeing how your muscles and veins work when you feed." He set a liter of blood on the table….are you still feeling the effects of the adrenaline?" he asked with that same ice cold smile.

"Yes!" she exclaimed as she tried thrashing again. Ozaki placed the bag to her lip and she began to feed, poking her fangs through its plastic, as opposed to opening the latch. Ozaki made a few delicate cuts in her arm. Ritsu didn't notice much as she slowly sipped the blood pack. He sliced into a vein and saw the new blood seem to "dance" with her own dark red blood. The two reds circled around eachother. It was mesmerizing to the doctor who couldn't help but watch in his medicated state. He snapped himself out of the sight quickly, Ritsu was about halfway finished with the bag when the doctor got an idea. He stuck the scalpel just below her ribcage and dragged the blade down to her groin. In the heat of feeding frenzy, and due to the effects of the adrenaline, she didn't mind as much, though for a brief moment she twitched at the burning pain. Two more cuts, one back up to her ribcage, and another connecting the two, Ozaki opened up a triangular section into her abdomen. Everything was visible, her lungs, diaphragm, stomach kidneys, liver, even her uterus and reproductive system. He noticed the cuts healing and quickly clamped the area open, so he could further study.

" _ **So, it seems the blood isn't flowing into her stomach,**_ " he said as he cut it open. Ritsu was unmoved. " _ **I think her fangs must link directly to her circulatory system….**_ _I'll have to remove one later,_ " he said quietly to himself. " _ **Hmm, with each sip the organs twitch a bit….**_ " Ozaki looked around her opened cavity, using a magnifying glass to examine the darkened organs. He prodded all of them then had another thought.

" _Her ovaries….."_ he made sure to conceal the scalpel as he cut one of them open. He took a blunt syringe and used it so suck up some of the fluid inside. " _I'll just harvest a few eggs to study later…._ Alright I see that you're done," he noticed as Ritsuko drained the remainder of the pack. Then he heard screaming. He quickly stuffed her mouth to prevent her from being heard by the other Shiki. Then he removed the clamps on her opening, allowing the wounds to close. Once they were he removed the cloth. "I take it the adrenaline wore off?" he took a close look at her eyes, her pupils were normal and the bloodshot look was gone. He wiped the tears away from her face tenderly.

"Relax, the painful part is over," he said as he produced several different syringes of various drugs. "Now I just want you to tell me how each of these make you feel, we'll start with the anesthetic," he gave her a quick injection.

"N-nothing doctor," she said through her tears.

"As expected... Next up…amphetamines," he pushed in the plunger and immediately noticed her twitching and squirming. "Looks like, yes…..stimulants seem to work….but for how long?" So, the doctor started to wait. He gave himself another dose of adrenaline after the first hour, and another half dose during the second. But finally his patience had drawn thin. "That particular drug was only supposed to last fifteen minutes at the dosage I gave you… _The adrenaline seemed to wear off when she ate the blood, or maybe it just wore off on its own, but I might give it a shot."_ He produced a small cup of blood. "Here, drink."

"But, Doctor I'm full" she said, regrettably.

"Just take a sip," he prodded, she noticed the anger in his eyes and obeyed his request. Immediately she felt much more calm and relaxed, as opposed to the wired high functioning feeling the amphetamines gave her. The doctor tried various other stimulants on her, with varying degrees of success, but all having at least a modicum of an effect.

"And lastly…we have this…" Ozaki lowered a small baggie of pills in front of Ritsuko's face. "Interesting story these, one of the Mizobe police officers confiscated them from a drug dealer, he sent them to me for testing before this whole vampire incident and I never got around to posting the results. But I did find out what they were. These pills have lsd in them, I'd like you to take one." Ritsuko adamantly refused the pill Ozaki held. But he was in no mood and lacked the patience. He slammed the scalpel into the palm of her hand and when she screamed he forced the pill into her mouth. He noticed her eyes glaze over immediately. After a few minutes he saw her laughing and drooling like a junkie.

"Whoa….. these colors," she said through bouts of giggling.

" _ **She must be having a bout of euphoria, along with the hallucinations….. I think I'll let her have it, after the pain they've all been through. Might be interesting for her to tell me what she sees.**_ " Ozaki backed away from the table and nocked two blood samples over.

"Damn!" he said as he rubbed his thigh. He looked over at the two samples. One was Natsuno's the other, Megumi's. His eyes widened as he noticed something as the samples mixed.

"My, my….that certainly interesting," he said as he collected the intermingled blood.

 **Meanwhile**

Tatsumi slipped up to the clinic and tried the door. "Aw, c'mon," he growled, "That Megumi girl invited me back, does the invitation have to come from the doctor himself?" Yoshie had told him everything. He wasn't completely certain he believed her story, but so far, what he'd seen seemed to make it believable. Just as with Natsuno, almost as if on command, when Tatsumi mentioned he'd been invited, the door gave an audiable click and swung open. "What the...? Ok, that's interesting."

He quietly slipped into the building and over to the basement door. "Ugh..." He covered his nose. "Natsuno was right, this place reeks of blood. The hell did he do in here last night?" He reached out and tried the door to the basement. There was an audiable click and the door swung open freely.

Megumi sat on the bottom of the stairs, a bored sort of pout on her face. Masao was quietly slouched in a far off corner of the room. The physical scars of what he'd gone through the night before were gone, but the mental ones were still there. His arms were wrapped tightly around his body and head, his knees tucked to his chest, and he was mumbeling unintelligably to himself. Tohru was leaning against a wall, lost in his own thoughts. All three were pulled from their solitude when they heard the door open.

"Is he coming back for another one of us?" Masao hissed, scrambling to his feet, "It's too soon for him to bring Nurse Kunihiro back, isn't it?"

"No," Tohru said, sniffing at the air, "That's not him."

"Ah?" Megumi lept to her feet, a smile crossing her face. "You came back!" she said excitedly.

"Yo!" Tatsumi said with a smile as he came down the stairs. He instantly noticed the air in the room felt colder as the two male Shiki glared at him. He sighed. "Look, I get it, you two. You don't like me," he said, "But, whatever happened between us, I think we ALL have a common enemy now."

"You mean the doctor, don't you?" Tohru asked cautiously.

"Huh?" Megumi chirped.

Tatsumi plopped down on one of the steps and looked around the room. "Where's the other girl?" he asked.

"Ritsu-Chan's upstairs with Doctor Ozaki at the moment," Tohru asnswered, his voice full of concern.

"No telling what that maniac's doing with her right now," Masao sneered.

"Why are you guys talking like that about the doctor?" Megumi asked, "He's the one keeping us safe, isn't he?"

The males exchanged looks. "It sounds like I'm not the only one who doesn't completely trust him," Tatsumi said with a smirk. "What has he been putting you through? The whole place reeks of blood and urine tonight," he pointed toward the top of the stairs with his thumb over his shoulder.

Tohru and Masao exchanged looks, then took a deep, though unneccessary breath. Tohru recounted his night in the examination room with the doctor. Masao then recounted his own experiences, opening up about it for the first time.

"He did WHAT!?" Tohru exclaimed when Masao came to the part about the UV light tests. Tohru's anger was more toward the danger Ritsu had been in than what Masao had been through, but still, there was a slight underlying paing of pitty for his former friend as well. At least with a stake through the heart, a Shiki's final death would be quick and merciful, sunlight was the most painful, horrifying way any of them could imagine to go, as it would be slow, and if the person behind it were depraved enough, could be prolounged.

"I don't believe you," Megumi snapped. "Doctor Ozaki wouldn't hurt us like that," she refuted.

"Megumi, do you think we'd make something like this up?" Tohru asked.

Megumi shook her head. The look on her face was one of clear confusion. "Th-the doctor said he was helping us," she stammered, "Didn't he say he's been our doctor since the day we were born?"

Tohru sighed. "What exactly did he do when you were with him?" he asked.

Megumi shook her head innocently. "He showed me pictures of people he said I should have known, then gave me one of those... Wha'd'ya' call'em...?" She placed a slender finger to her lips and blinked blankly for a momet, "Ink blot tests."

Tohru heaved a sigh. "Well, it sounds like he's at least letting the girls off easy." All four Okiagari jerked as at that exact moment, they heard a shriek of pain from usptairs. "Ritsu!" Tohru pushed past Megumi and Tatsumi and rushed up the stairs.

Megumi slunk back against the wall, her eyes widened in horror, hands over her mouth. Tohru reached the top of the stairs, but it was as if he'd hit a wall when he got there. Ozaki had laid down the rule, from the start, that none of the Shiki were to go upstairs without his permission, and then they could only enter the rooms he allowed them to. Tohru stumbled back a bit. Whatever it was that prevented the Okiagari from entering a house uninvited was now preventing him from rushing to Ritsuko's rescue. "Damn it all. I warned him not to harm her," Tohru growled.

Tatsumi's mouth dropped when he saw the effect. There was clearly nothing barring the door, but Tohru seemed to have hit a barrier at full force and it pushed him stumbeling back down the stairs. "Do what he wants, I don't think there's any medical explination for THAT!" Tatsumi said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Yeah, so how the hell are you getting in?" Masao and Tohru both asked.

Tatsumi shook his head and pointed at Megumi. "She let me in, and then invited me back," he said, "Doc O said he didn't even want us coming here at night, but didn't explain why. The door almost didn't open for me when I got here. But, I HAD been invited..."

"Yeah, that's how you got to his wife and patients he kept in the clinic in the first place, isn't it? Someone else invited you in," Tohru said, glowering at the Jinrou.

"I honestly don't remember," Tatsumi said, "But that's how it's been explained to me. From what I've been told, it's how we got Megumi into your bedroom, and you into Natsuno's house."

"DON'T...!" Tohru seethed. Without thinking about it he slammed his fist into the wall next to him, leaving a hole in the spot he'd hit.

"Ooo... Touchy subject," Tatsumi said. He saw the look in Tohru's eyes and sighed. "Right, right, I won't bring it up again."

"I just don't understand any of this," Megumi whimpered. "We can't leave without the doctor, you're all talking about things I don't remember doing, we haven't eaten REAL food since we got here, and we only leave this room at night. Would someone PLEASE tell me what's really going on here?" She looked at Masao with a sneer as he moved closer. She pushed him away. "Someone OTHER than the creepy guy? And, no, don't give me that junk about us being a couple," she warned him.

"You two?" Tatsumi asked, "Naw, I can't see that."

"Oh, screw all of you," Masao huffed, turning away from the group.

Tatsumi wrapped an arm around Megumi's shoulders. "Look, I don't remember everything clearly, myself," he admitted, "But, someone who says she knows what's going on filled me in on things after I left here the other day. If no one else has explained it to you, I'll tell you what's going on," he offered.

Megumi gave a meek nod. "Alright," she agreed.

Tohru heaved a sigh. "Wait..." Megumi and Tatusmi looked up at the blond. Rather than walking down toward them, he placed both hands on the gaurd rail and jumped over it, landing just inches away from Tatsumi at the bottom of the stairs. "You're right Megumi, it's time we all sit down and talk."

 **Meanwhile**

"Oi, Tatsumi?" Natsuno called as he walked down the stairs. He stopped and listened for an answer. "He must have gone out again? Oh well, guess I'm just cooking for myself, then."

As Natsuno rounded the corner, heading into the kitchen, he was interrupted by a knock at the door. He stopped and waited. Not really in the mood for company, he hoped that with the lights off, if he remained still, whoever it was would leave. The knock came again. "Natsuno, open up, I know you're in there," Yoshie's voice rang out, "I can smell ya'."

Natsuno threw the door open and glared at her. "Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?" he growled.

"Calm down, big boy," Yoshie giggled, "I'm not saying you stink or anything. ... Just the opposite, in fact."

Natsuno stared at her for a moment. "Is that blood on your lips?" he asked.

"Huh...?" She blinked at him then licked her lips. "Oh, oops, I guess I missed a drop."

"What?" Natsuno asked.

"Just shut up and invite me in already," Yoshie sighed.

"Excuse me, little miss ragdoll, but why should I?" Natsuno asked.

"Ragdoll?" Yoshie barked, "Now I see what Masao meant when he said you were rude and cold. Where's Tatsumi?"

"Out," Natsuno answered, "Now, I'll ask again, why should I let you in?"

"Because, I'm the only one around here who knows what's going on with you, that has any sense to do what needs to be done to help you out with it," she said, confidently. "That doctor doesn't care one way or another if you get your memories back."

Natsuno clicked his tongue. "Come on in," he grumbled, "I was just about to raid the kitchen, are you hungry?" he offered.

"No thanks," Yoshie said, as she slipped off her shoes and shut the door behind her. She licked her lips. "I just ate," she giggled. "You should feed, too, actually."

Natsuno paused and looked at her like she were mad. "Didn't I just say..." he started.

"Wrong kind of feeding, Jackass," she snipped. Yoshie put her hands on her hips and sighed. "Tatsumi didn't explain anything to you, did he?"

"No," Natsuno returned.

Yoshie pointed to the couch. "SIT!" she demanded.

"What?" Natsuno growled.

"Sit down and shut up," Yoshie said, "We've got a lot of ground to cover."


	8. Sanguinem Pugnae and Sanguinem Operans

Ozaki stood in the bathroom atop the mizobe apartment he'd been forced to relocate to. It was nearly evening, nearly time for him to, once again, continue the dark experiments he had begun several days before. He took a look at himself, the mirror was sparklingly clean, unusual for someone as disorganized as the doctor. The amber light from the sunset just beyond the window glared in his eyes.

" _I definitely need some sleep. Maybe the monsters can wait until midday for me to resume…..no, if I want to try anything invasive its probably for the best that they aren't turning to ash while I slice into them…I suppose I could just move them up like I planned."_ Ozaki gave himself one last look. He was getting crusty. His facial hair had progressed from his normal stubble to a scraggly patchy mat of a beard, not unlike something a teenager would grow to try to look older. His eyes were bloodshot too, along with black velvety bags that sagged from either corner. He licked his lips to try and get rid of the dry sticky feeling in his mouth. He drew a glass of water and carried it over to the small cot in the corner. He reached into a small backpack lying underneath and pulled out a small bottle of sleeping pills. Without even glancing at the label he popped the cap and poured a few into his hand. He grabbed the water and downed them just as carelessly as he poured them. " _what im dong is not healthy…but its just temporary, once I finish with them I can put an end to this dark chapter of my life."_ He thought as he slowly drifted out of consciousness. The peaceful black veil of sleep enveloped him for the first time in a long while.

*DIIIIIIING*

The first thing the doctor noticed after the alarm rang was the pounding in his head, every time his heart beat it was like someone increased the pressure in his skull. The second thing the doctor noticed was the bright light shining directly into his eyes. He squinted out of reflex and moved out of its path. He clutched his head when the headache flared at his movement. He looked around the room. All he noticed was a blurry picture of what he could only remember as his studio apartment. The doctor reached for the glass of water and drank it quickly. It lessened the headache by a small modicum, but did nothing to clear his vision. He squinted and rubbed his eyes vigorously. A bit of clarity finally found its way to him. After he pulled out the bag from under his bed he decided it would be best to give himself another shot from an epi pen. He felt a shockwave rush over his body as the needle pierced his skin and the hot chemical leaked into his bloodstream.

"Ahh! Alright. I'm good to go!" he said enthusiastically as he twitched his head.

 **An hour later**

Ozaki staggered into the clinic. The adrenaline was wearing out of his system and his hangover was creeping back. But he shrugged it off. First, he made his way back into the surgical room. He glanced around the place and winced at the smell. Burnt flesh, blood and urine. Courtesy of the nightly experiments hed been running.

"First…the data I collected." He said aloud. He walked over to the video camera and ejected the tape, placing it in the sack he kept his other supplies, the same for the notepad. Then he glanced at the spilled blood on the table.

" _Oh right, almost forgot about that…I should still have two samples of Natsuno's blood. I'm definitely going to test that reaction first today."_ The doctor shivered as he reached his hand into the freezer that the blood was stored in. He grabbed the two vials with Natsuno's name on them and placed them in the bag as well. Finally the doctor took a deep breath as he walked into the cell that the Shiki were sleeping in. He saw them all sitting in a pile, Masao noticeably distanced from the other three, and Tohru in the center, between Megumi and Ritsuko, both of whom had their arms wrapped around him. Megumi had a peaceful smile on her face, and the doctor couldn't help but feel a pang of warmth looking at it. Ritsuko however only looked distressed and upset. He even saw her twitch, perhaps it would have been a grunt if speaking came naturally to them, as opposed to being a skill in the state they were in. He pondered that theory, but shrugged it off when he remembered that Megumi could still speak even after her amnesia. His thoughts whipped back to Ritsuko. He noticed her even more closely, she was sweating too. Shiki couldn't produce sweat at the same volume that a living person or a Jjnrou could, but their bodies still seemed to operate normally and produce fluids all the same.

" _Blood, sweat, and saliva at least…."_ He glanced at Ritsuko, and lost himself in her beauty for a moment…." _Perhaps….other fluids…as well….but that's a subject for a different day."_ He cautiously approached her. He grabbed her and flipped her off Tohru, hoisting her up and walking her up to the top room, keeping careful not to expose her to sunlight. He quickly remembered the uteral fluid he had sampled from her the night before and backpedaled to the cooler to retrieve it. "This is certainly worth examining as well…" Ritsuko started to shift and move around again. The doctor checked his watch. "1 in the afternoon…..not nearly time for them to wake….. _could she be having a nightmare?"_ he hoisted Ritsuko over his shoulder and sat her down face up on one of the operating tables. He restrained her arms and legs, but noticed how she continued to shake and squirm. He set the video camera up and retrieved the other Shiki, placing them in similar restraints. Ozaki took a moment to look over the Shiki, all sprawled out and restrained on the operating tables. He walked into the other room and retrieved the machine he used to read brain activity. One by one he checked each Shiki for a short duration. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of excitement as the machine scrawled up and down revealing the graph of their thoughts.

" _I wonder if they can remember what they dream of in this state or if outside suggestion can affect their behaviors. It seemed to work with Ritsuko, so I should try it once more"_

The doctor looked over each of his subjects, carefully. He nervously drummed a finger on a nearby counter top as he tried to decide which Shiki to experiment with, and how. His eyes settled on Tohru. The blond was surprisingly still and quiet for one who carried so many burdens on his shoulders. "Perhaps his regrets weigh on him so bad while he's awake," the doctor pondered, "That he's drawn into an even deeper sleep than the others?" It was a weak explaination, but when Megumi was smiling in her sleep, Ritsuko was showing signs of nightmares, and even Masao having flinched at least once while the doctor had carried him into the room, it seemed odd that Tohru was so still. "If I were able to blame this on rigormortis, then Megumi would be just as still," the doctor muttered aloud, "after all, she did die before Tohru. This whole ordeal simply seems to leave the boy emotionally drained, and it's been taking a toll on his usual happy-go-lucky personality."

Toshio reached into his pocket and clenched his fist around his pack of cigarettes. Feeling the pack crunch in his hands, however, he stopped, took a deep breath, and fought back the urge to pull them out. "Not now," he told himself, "Let me finish this up, then I can have an uninterrupted smoke."

He started toward Tohru, but stopped, his eyes focusing on Masao. He smirked and his eyes flickered with a quick sadistic glea as a thought passed through his mind. "You first," he said as he slipped up next to the lanky dark haired male. He hooked Masao back up to the machine, wanting to collect any and all data he could on the boy's brainwaves. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Masao," the doctor whispered. "You came back, when Hiromi didn't. How many bruises did I tend to oon that boy while he was alive, that were caused by you, I wonder? Your sister-in-law couldn't prove it, but she was certain it was you." Masao twitched. Toshio stopped and blinked, he hadn't expected a reaction, especially not so quickly. "Pretty selfish of you, if you ask me. So jealous of a child over your family, and of Natsuno over Tohru and Megumi, even though they were already dead or dying, that you came back? Did your concence even take a single moment to grieve for your nephew when you learned he was gone?" Another twitch. Masao's head jerked, as if he were turning away from the person 'scolding' him. There was a flash of movement in the teen's throat, suggesting he'd attempted to make some sort of noise.

The doctor licked his lips before he continued. "I understand you went back to your house, once the Shiki came under attack? I heard Chizuko telling one of the villagers she'd clobbered you with a lead pipe. Did you honestly think she'd be happy to see you, knowing what you are? Knowing what you did?" Masao's body thrashed about a bit more frantically. The doctor raised an eyebrow. These weren't the results he was expecting, but he couldn't deny they were intreauging. He tucked his hand into his pocket and clenched his pack of cigarettes again. He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "Perhaps you should reconsider your way of doing things if you ever want a chance with Megumi, huh?"

Toshio lost that bit of self control he'd had before starting this experiment, and felt the beginnings of another headache. He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a long drag off of it. His hands shook and fumbled as he tried to light the fag. He breathed in and held it for a breife moment, before exhailing and letting the smoke blow into the air. It instantly cleared his head and took the edge off. Toshio leaned against the wall and took another drag off the cigarette, his eyes scanning each of his subjects. "It's not like the second hand smoke will kill them, after all," he mumbled.

He walked over to the machine and looked over Masao's graphs. As expected, the line started out flat, no movement whatsoever. However, there were small ripples from when Toshio started talking, spiking at the moments that had caused movement, violently so at the mention of Masao's run in with his sister-in-law, then returning to flat for every moment the doctor had fallen silent. "Instantanious? Intreauging."

The doctor removed the machine from Masao, then hooked it back up to Tohru. He leaned in and began whispering to the blonde. At first, he brought up Torhu's mother and father, mentioning they were both still alright, but both deeply distraught at loosing all three children. There was no motion from Tohru, but what had been a flat line on the paper gave quick spikes in reply. Toshio went on to mention that he was uncertain if Aoi or Tamotsu had risen, but for the sake of peace of mind for everyone, he hoped they had not. This caused a twitch of an eyebrow on Tohru's face and another spike on the machine. "You've suffered enough, Tohru," the doctor sighed, "I'm going to tell you something, but I don't know if you'll remember it when you wake up or not." The doctor leaned in and whispered into Tohru's ear, as quietly as he possibly could, "Natsuno came back." The line on the graph jumped and spiked. The amount of brain activity recorded surpased Masao's most violent results, yet Tohru still remained unmoving.

Toshio stood and stared at the blonde for a moment, then turned and left the room. Stepping outside for the fresh air, he placed a fresh cigarette in his mouth and lit up. The doctor finished his new cigarette before returning inside, deciding he'd played with their minds enough for one day.

"Interesting results." The doctor sighed as he put his equipment away. Starting with Ritsuko, he carried the Shiki down back into the cell he had retrieved them from. There was a cold draft flowing into the room, something almost supernatural in origin. The doctor shivered and held his sides as he locked the door. He could feel his head starting to pound again, something much more intense than in the morning. Without even thinking about it, he grabbed a bottle of pain medication and downed a handful, swallowing them dry. Each pill felt like a stone slithering down his throat, but he powered through the ordeal, shaking off the awkward feeling. " _Now for the blood samples…and the fluid…."_ He picked up the bag containing the precious samples and walked over to the microscope. The first sample was a vial of Megumi's blood. He carefully lowered the syringe, difficult beause of the fatigue in his hands, and transferred a drop onto the slide. The blood was dark red, a color like a rich wine, or a coagulated scab, depending on the perspective of the viewer. The doctor was staunchly in the latter camp. He pressed his eye to the glass. He focused in and out, looking at all the minute details of each layer.

" _The red blood cells look strange, something akin to sickle cell samples, and there aren't any immune cells to be found. But….."_ Ozaki looked at what seemed to be purple strings laced in and out between the cells. " _Are these…viruses? They seem to embed themselves inside of the cells, but usually viruses abandon their myelin sheaths once they enter a host."_ He took a closer look at the small coils that were burrowed into the nuclei of each individual cell. "That's odd…." He watched in awe as one of the cells expanded, it swelled to enormous proportions and burst, leaving two viruses in its place to swim off. " _They look more like parasites. I wonder what would happen if I put fresh blood in…just like Kyoko's sample…."_ Ozaki plunged a fresh syringe into his finger, siphoning a drop of blood, he kept the slide in focus and produced a small portion of the fresh drop under the lense. He let out a sigh of relief when he noticed the fresh cells migrating around. Suddenly his face turned pale. The red cells from Megumi began to writhe and burst just like the first one, leaving the virus, or parasite, Ozaki wasn't sure what to call it, to seek out new cells. He watched as they embedded themselves into his own cells.

" _That's….beyond belief! I've never seen anything like this, it enters the host cell similarly to a virus, but seems to feed off of it like a parasite. perhaps it can disrupt gene activity to suit its own needs, reactivating cells only when it needs to use their functions. I've heard of parasites altering the minds of their hosts as well, making mice frequent cats territory or causing ants to climb to the highest branch of a tree. This must be what causes the hunger Shiki are prone to, they need the blood to feed the pathogen, as well as to help it breed."_ He watched as two of the pathogens encircled one another, touching for a moment, then embedding themselves into host cells… " _What's this? They reproduce sexually…so they aren't viruses…..but parasite isn't exactly an apt term either…..they behave differently…perhaps this is a whole new kingdom of life….these things can manipulate genetic material so fluidly and skillfully…..they must also be able to cause biochemical reactions, that's probably why the Shiki grow fangs and black eyes.. it must not be able to turn on a resistance to intense light however, or simply doesn't need to. And they reproduce sexually….they must be able to adapt to circumstances shockingly fast…..No, going in without an invitation and the fear of religious artifacts, probably defense mechanisms adapted within the last few hundred years….That also raises the question…..is the host still alive? Moreover, what other kinds of creatures are like this? Maybe things like werewolves and zombies are real too, I could imagine different strains of this creature producing results like that….."_

Ozaki dawned a large smile "I've discovered a new species….That means I get to name it….. sanguinem ozakia…..no, it would be kind of pretentious to name it after myself….. _sanguinem pugnae….._ yeah…it means fighting blood, that should do. Though I wonder how im going to publish my findings…. It doesn't matter right now I guess…I should look at Natsuno's sample." He cleared Megumi's slide off of the table careful to bathe it in medical alcohol, a safety measure just in case the creature was highly contagious.

He lowered the slide into place, looking deeply at Natsuno's blood sample. "What makes Jinrou different?" He could still see the purple threads drifting about in Natsuno's blood. But when he took a look at the red blood cells he noticed something different. "I see immune cells, but they have no interest in these creatures…and the red cells….." he looked on and saw the red cells, it differed from cell to cell, but they all seemed to have the threads latching on to the outside of the cell walls, as opposed to burying themselves within like they did in Megumi's sample. He even saw them splitting and mating outside of the nucleus. "Amazing! This must be a different strain, or a mutation. It seems to act more symbiotically than the kind Megumi and the other Shiki carry. Jinrou mst be able to keep their warmth and not suffer any of the weaknesses of the other shiki because they are only under limited control. This mutually beneficial relationship also seems to make the viruses more successful than the ones the normal Shiki have, I can see dense clusters of them in Natsuno's blood, whereas, in Megumi's there were only a few spaced far apart…. I suppose this could be considered a new species as well…I'll call this one _sanguinem operans_ ….working blood. Since this one seems to cooperate with the body, as opposed to fighting for its control like the older strain…that only leaves one last thing. I saw an interesting reaction when Natsuno's blood mixed with Megumi's…." Ozaki took a drop of Megumi's blood and placed it on Natsuno's. He immediately noticed a violent reaction. The viruses that were embedded in Megumi's red blood cells seemed to writhe away when exposed to Natsuno's strain. As the viruses from his blood began to coat her cells, it must have produced an environment on the inside that the older strain was not able to survive in. "This….this truly is amazing…..and….my god…Megumi's red blood cells are getting their vitality and color back!" Ozaki was hit with another fierce migraine as the excitement overtook him. He clawed at his head until he settled down. "That gives me an idea…I have no clue how fast this reaction is, or if it will even work…but I have to try." He filled the syringe with Natsunos blood and walked back down into the Shiki's cellar. He grabbed Megumi's wrist and plunged it into a vein.


End file.
